Yesterday my mom shared some picture of a guys black lungs and it made me think about smoking. There was a time from like 1991 or so through 1999 that I smoked as much as I possibly could. I have an addictive personality and if I could have figured out how to light a cigarette right when I woke up and have kept it lit until I went to bed, that’s how much I would have smoked. I quit cold turkey in 1999 and haven’t had a drag of anything since. Black or white that’s how I roll.
But the thing that came to the forefront of my mind when I saw that picture wasn’t that I shouldn’t have ever smoked (duh) and that it’s amazing how dumb we humans are for doing something that literally kills you. No. The thing I thought about was that when I was in high school, the boarders could get permission from their parents to smoke at school. Read that again. The school would let kids smoke if their parents said it was okay. Man the 80’s were awesome.
I really mean that too. I know every generation has aha moments as we learn to inevitably read the writing on the wall. I’m just struck by how obvious a lot of these things are. Like punch you in the face obvious. It’s at once a testament to the power of marketing as well as the collective gullibility of a nation and world.
This can be seen in how we eat as well. We believed for years that fat was bad and sugar was fine. That carbs are bad and protein is good, and on and on and on. Most of this was based on marketing and lobbying, and we ate it up. Literally.
Today the vaping is all the rage. I’m sure it’s a lesser of the two evils against smoking, but there will of course be some sort of cancer/lung/brain destroying side effects that will come out and people will sue the vape companies because “it tasted like mango, I thought it was fruit!” As evolved as we are, idiots we remain.
Back to the 80’s. As my generation enters it’s “back in my day” era, I am very often struck by the astronomical level of “danger” we partook in versus kids today. I thought for sure my kids would be up to way more shenanigans than we were, what with access to the internet and all. I mean I know there are still kids doing stupid shit because, well they’re kids. But I am constantly amazed at how much less. This could also just be naïveté as I am usually in bed by 8:30, but whatever. I’ll give them a little benefit of doubt.
I sometimes wish we could go back to those days of idiocy. Where you knew the one cop you had to avoid in a small town. Where you could go get pallets from behind a grocery store (theft) and burn them on the beach. Where your parent could write a note to the school they sent you to that would allow you to smoke. Where the music was loud and there were fist fights from time to time, but no one ever got shot. To a time when Simon Le Bon saved a couple prayers for the morning after and none of us were too worse for wear.
#hugsandhi5s
