This morning, while in Walgreen's getting milk for work, I was behind a few people in line. In the front of the line, was a very round woman who was fighting over how much money she was supposed to save from her coupons: a mere 60 cents or so. She wasn't an issue. What was a problem, was the man behind her and in front of me.
The man looked like he was in his late 70's. He was frail, had a very small structure, and his arms and legs were thin. He had a slightly darker skin color than I, more of like a light brown suntan. He didn't appear to be in the best shape as he had bruises all over himself, like his body just decided to stop healing itself. His skin looked like wrinkly leather and the bruises were not contained to small areas but were large patches, as if his body was slowly turning purple. I noticed a cotton swab on his left arm, in the crease of his elbow and noticed what looked like a think clear plastic tube running from his right pocket, up and in front of him. I would guess that either he has a little, tiny oxygen tank with him or that small tube was delivering something into his arm. Perhaps like an IV with fluid or maybe insulin or something that was colorless. Let's just say that without seeing him from the front, I was seriously worried when it was his turn at the cash stand and he asked her a question.
"Could you get me a pack of Marlboro lights?" he asked.
I didn't say anything out loud but inside I was screaming at him. Could this have been the worst decision in history? Clearly, the man is in no condition to smoke, even a "light' cancer stick, so what was he doing buying a pack anyway? If that was a mini oxygen tank, then he is a moron for smoking. That is an explosion waiting to happen. If that was a tube inserting IV solution or insulin, then he obviously is in no condition to do anything harmful to his body in the first case. I have noticed that in most cases, older people really don't care about themselves.
I would figure that if I was old enough where my body had the physical appearance of a mummy, I would want to stay alive for as long as I could, not speed up the aging process. Cigarettes do kill. I'm not telling you to stop, but just suggesting that if you do smoke, it would be in your best interest to stop. What if I told you that for every cigarette that you smoke, you cut 2 hours off of your total life time? That's right, just move up your biological clock by 2 hours. So, how many cancer sticks do you smoke in a day? 10? 12? then you just erased a day from your life. Which would you rather do; die or live?
I'm not going to preach to you about the benefits of living, but it has its advantages. However I can't help but notice that there are stupid people around. When you have asthma, and you smoke, that is stupid. When you drink and black out and then decide to drink some more, that is stupid. When you do drugs that do damage to your body and continue to do so, that is stupid.
Please, make a conscious thought about what you are doing to your body and why you are doing it, before you do it. If your family has a history of heart disease or other heart related issues, it probably isn't a good idea to have MacDonald's or red meat every day. Please everyone, before I start losing friends or family or friends of friends, think of your actions before you do something. Don't be like the old man who obviously wasn't in healthy condition and decided to switch from regular cigarettes to 'light' ones thinking they would stave off his bad health.
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