Here is a twist on an old concept:
Crafting a lifestyle can be compared to one’s choice of a smoke.
Commercial cigarettes come by the pack, are available at every street corner, and tend to be addictive. Mass-produced, each is identical to the other. Chemical compounds conspire to convince you the next cigarette would be as good as the first, starting you off on a chain of consequences. It is what the vast majority of people visualize when they think of someone smoking. It is the default, the most convenient, the normal way to go about it. Many have them without ever thinking of smoking any other way.
Cigars offer a more robust experience, and come in various lengths and sizes. They also come in prepared packages – ornate boxes, simple cellophane – ready to be used and enjoyed after purchase (After snipping off a bit of the cap, of course.) They sometimes stand as symbols of wealth, of status, of belonging to certain groups. Smoking cigars set you apart from those low-class street-corner smokers, without your having to sacrifice any convenience whatsoever. They just cost a little more, financially…but that is worth it, perhaps?
Roll-your-own cigarettes offer the same portability and ease-of-use as commercial ones – except you must know how to put them together before they are to be enjoyed. The effort to be expended in creation is repaid by the freedom of choosing what to smoke. Lavender, tobacco, weed, sage – the list goes on. Sourcing the materials and learning to roll takes initiative and time, adding friction to the smoking process and holding back those who would rather go with a more straightforward, easier option.
Pipes are a different beast altogether. For one, they do not disintegrate into smoke and ashes when in use. Made of a variety of materials – corn cobs, wood, glass, metal – pipes can hold an even wider variety of substances than cigarettes, and (when smoked correctly) last longer. The trouble is – as an acquaintance of mine once so succinctly put it – “smoking a pipe takes skill.” From packing in the tobacco or herbs, to lighting it, to retrohaling, puffing, or breath-smoking, to taking care of said instrument, pipes require greater levels of concentration, patience, and deliberation than any of the other options listed above. Not only so, but the upfront costs of securing and using a pipe are higher than, say a conventional cigarette. But it is so very much worth it.
And so it is with approaching most things in life – and with life as a whole. Experiences come with their own costs and consequences. (And yes, I am quite biased towards that last option…)