Excerpted from
Each time I smoke a cigarette, my mind wanders back to ancient Greece. You know, those slave-owning misogynist homosexuals on whom the United States based their philosophical and political ideas. The ancient Greeks would pour wine onto the ground as an offering to the gods. These libations were a celebration of the raw, primal forces that fuel the mysteries of life and are responsible for the simple pleasures, such as the growing of grapes. When reaping the rewards of nature, they believed in honoring the forces involved. Smoking is like giving a little to death. How much more alive can one be than when giving a little bit of life back to death? Smoking is pouring a little bit of your precious wine into the dirt. If you are alive–and I am talking more than just having a heartbeat–you have to ask yourself how much you can give. Each cigarette is something like 15 minutes of your life. How can you better honor the spirit of life than by mortgaging it against death for a little pleasure?
