As I was putting some grocery bags into my trunk this morning, I noticed a man standing by the side of his vehicle about two parking spaces down from where my vehicle was located. I wondered what he was doing just standing there .... and then I smelled the second hand smoke coming from the fingers of his right hand, and realized that he was finishing inhaling the remaining nicotine of the cigarette that he had in his possession (see the costs over a lifetime here).My supposition of the situation, was that the reason the gentleman was standing outside his vehicle, was that he didn't want his wife to smell the smoke inside the vehicle when he returned home, so he wisely remained outside the vehicle until he finished the last dregs of the cigarette.
In the mid 1940's, there was a popular Western swing novelty song that this writer listened to many times on an old 78 rpm record that my late father had with the above titled label (see above picture). The song was written by the late Merle Travis and sung by the late Tex Williams (see video here and the lyrics here). The lyrics of the song emphasized the addictive aspects of the cigarette by stating several times throughout the song, "Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate, that you hate to make him wait, but you just gotta have another cigarette."
Both my late father and mother were chain-smokers for approximately thirty years (many people smoked in the 1930 - 1950 era). Not long before he passed away, I asked my father why he became so addicted to the cigarette. He told he that it had a calming effect and thus relaxed his body (temporarily). My question was, how did the cigarette calm him? This website explains how: "Nicotine stimulates your brain to release dopamine which is a chemical associated with pleasurable feelings. As a smoker, you need more and more levels of nicotine to stimulate dopamine to feel 'normal.'"
Beloved, any vice that is addictive, should be avoided at all costs. The apostle Paul once stated, "All things are lawful to me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything" (1 Corinthians 6:12 MEV). If we're going to be addicted to something, let's be addicted to the reading, study and application of God's word.
---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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