Nicotine

"Inhale the smoke exhale the stress" the smokers mantra, I'm four sticks down with the fifth nestled deep within my two fingers and it's embers illuminating the darkness which is my solace,  I've lost track of the conversation but what does it matter friendships these days are fickle,  if the death of grammar wasn't so evident I'd be an avid campaigner for the disuse of the word "friend" but alas we're stuck in the present with its issues,  terms and  phenomena and hence the term "friend" is being used loosely. I've deviated again haven't I? Nonetheless with present company I need not apologize for the blank expression on my face with my eyes set as though I'm staring out into the wilderness with me set at the pinnacle of some lofty mountain . The question I ask myself, why am I smoking? The answer is obvious I reply,  because everyone else is and with me being a defunct addict reversing back to my old ways wasn't much of a problem. True and summarising it with the term "peer pressure" but, I'd say, how about "influence "  with "peer pressure" being the effect and "influence"  the cause,  as Oscar Wilde once put "influence" the art of Imbedding part of one's self in someone else's soul now that said I hadn't smoked for three years and for good reason, with a couple of test results to back it up and here I was, blowing away like I was Bob Marley and it was a bright sunny day in the city of Kingston. Influence ,  the beauty of it is, the influencer doesn't necessarily need to make contact, it can be likened to a mobile phone that picks up signals without having to go close to the cell tower the most important thing is,  to just be within range and  you'll catch the signal , just like the virus , it's usually a three step process first off from disdain your emotional attitude moves to indifferent, then it proceeds to become an acceptable behavior and last step is to participate, it may be actively, passively or in a one night stand kind of way,  but basically all three steps ensue so long as you hang around the "influencer" long enough,  time span as to how quick one moves from phase one to phase three differs on how resistant the subject to be influenced is,  like myself  in this current predicament moved from phase one to three within an hour but of course I'm a recovering addict so I don't count, now I'm not a moral absolutist that tag things either black or white I'm more inclined towards the shades of grey approach on ethical matters but,  let's not delve into the philosophy of it,  so I'm not here to judge whether or not this or that is right or wrong besides my current position doesn't cast me in the best light but, the bottom line is, if at first you see something that goes against your values don't hang around because chances are you'll soon enough  be that which you dislike sooner than you know while at the same time trying to justify it, but as it's often said our first reactions are usually the right ones. So there it is the ramblings thoughts of a relaxed mind.
                                                      Ejale VI