Streams of Life (33)

　　Originated from Smoking

　　Actually it is only recently that I have noticed how inconsiderate people here are. Being outside a few days in different markets, I had become a heavy second-smoker. At one point, my throat was becoming so sore that I had to tell my client

　　that I couldn’t do the job any longer. I thought dodging the market should be

　　the end of the story. But apparently not.

　　Every day whenever I walked out I came across people who were smoking, without any consideration towards others. It happens anywhere, ranging from restaurants,

　　coffee shop, tea house, to convenience store, cross section between the roads, and even in the subway. I don’t know what people who smoke think of their smoking habit and the possible consequences. In one market, I actually saw a middle-age man cough all way through whilst he was smoking. It was really shocking to seehow short-sighted people are, and how they act irrespective of the consequences.

　　My father was a chain smoker several years ago. But then one year one of his friends, who actually lived next to us, died of lung cancer. My mother told me, after he came back from the friend’s funeral, my father resolved to stop smoking.

　　He actually let my mother keep all the left-over cigarettes, asking her to either throw them away or give them to friends. He was scared.

　　But then last time when I called my family, I heard my father cough on the phone

　　and was told afterwards by my mother he started to smoke again. “I asked him not to smoke so much, but he said his work overwhelmed him so much that he needs

　　something to help him relax.” Said my mother on the phone. But how about the time when he attended his friend’s funeral? I am sure he was not any less stressed then. That time he had to attend to our family retailing business wholly on his own:checking stocks, buying products, accounting, and hustling around to square up with his regular customers. For a momentary satiation, he forgot all he had promised.

　　Days ago when I read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey, the writer actually mentioned that how people liked to dodge their obligations by making excuses. They would like to blame anything else for the bad consequences. For my father, he blamed that his work was overwhelmingly stressful, and that most of his friends smoke. In light of his being unable to change those facts, isn’t it better to work on himself instead? If he is stressed, isn’t it more necessary for him to look after himself better? If his friends smoke and offer him cigarettes, isn’t it more sensible to tell them he doesn’t smoke? I am sure they can understand that.

　　If this happened years ago, I suppose I would probably have done nothing, and let my father indulge in his cigarettes. But now I don’t feel like it, as I realize by time that insightfulness doesn’t always come after age. I frankly asked my father to think about what happened to his friend years ago and his revolution

　　. It was not long time ago my first uncle’s son from my mother side died of liver cancer due to heavy drinking. My father was instantly alarmed and started to

　　moderate his drinking habit. I wonder why he always needs some deadly examples in order to change.

　　But then I am sure plenty of other people are similar to my father. Like the guy

　　who was in the market smoking and coughing. Watching people do that is like watching them kill them slowly but deadly. Oftentimes, when I walk out and see people of that kind, Dorian Gray’s story would creep into my mind: In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian knew he was decaying, both mentally and physically. Because he could hide the decayed part from other people and even himself, he did it so as to ease his regret and pain caused by his awaking consciousness. But what happened in the end was no matter wherever he went and whatever he did, he was haunted and tortured by the fact that he was degenerating. In my opinion, the moment he died was not the result of his emotion paroxysm, but essentially the accumulation of all his past irresponsible actions. I wonder here in what way it will be different for people who smoke and drink without any moderation.

本文相关标签： Life of Streams