Curse Sir Walter Raleigh

Over the Memorial Day weekend, during my visit to NYC, my friend Jon & I stopped by the JR Cigar Store at 44th and 5th Ave, to see (what we believe is) the world's largest humidor. It was amazing. We each enjoyed an inexpensive, but very relaxing JR brand cigar outside the storefront, as we waited for Jon's lovely girlfriend to join us after her shopping trip. It was a sunny day and we both felt like it was a fantastic time and place to be alive. I don't smoke cigars often, and I never smoke cigarettes, but I appreciate the the experience of tobacco in this form once or twice a season. The experience is best when standing on a busy NY street with a friend.

After just having been relieved by the simple reassurance of a small life by finding my cat, today my family and I recieved the frightening diagnosis that my father has bladder cancer. The obvious cause is nearly a lifetime of cigarette smoking. He was not a chain smoker, but I'm certain he had a few each day. I wasn't going to write about this because it is ultimately a very personal issue that my family must face together, but there is also nothing more important to me in the world than this issue right now.

Although I never understood how many of my friends could pick up the habit of regular smoking when all of the clear warnings have been around my entire life, I don't feel that preaching about the horrors of smoking is what I want to do. I will probably still have the seasonal cigar. I will likely take another trip to the JR Cigar Store with my friend in the Fall. And because it is widely known that smoking causes cancer, I will allow smokers to make their own decisions. But I do want to share a feeling with anyone who would like to know what it is like to have a family member diagnosed with cancer caused by smoking. It is the second worst feeling in the world, and I will spend much of my future time hoping I will not have to experience the worst feeling in the world if my father cannot be cured.