Don't worry...I won't hijack anything, I just hate being excluded.

Maybe if each side understood the other a little better, more people would be tolerant of the cause & effects of legislature considered and passed. I like to think we're much more sensitive and understanding with each other than those who are making decisions for the faceless masses. Decisions that impact real people.

Not to in any way attempt to justify my being here, but I watched my father smoke all my youth. He smoked and he foolishly thought he was hiding it from us, while telling us "If I ever catch you smoking, I'll break your legs". A move that I always thought was completely hypocritical has now had a new light shown upon it, and I see it as an embarassed man trying to threaten his children in an attempt to protect them from something that had a tight grip on him.

He did manage to quit. One evening, about 16 years ago, he left my apartment after coming over for dinner, and went home to fall down the stairs. He was taking the dog out and going for his last smoke of the evening. His new slippers didn't have any tread, and he tumbled head first down the stairs, shattering his elbow and breaking his forearm in three places. A month in the hospital undergoing five major surgeries to install pins, needles, plates and screws really cramped his ability to smoke. He took advantage the restrictions placed upon him...and was able to shake it for good. He's 16 years without, and still has yet to admit he ever smoked.

I've learned by being able to read your posts, and was able to apply it to my own history with my father, and for that I'm grateful. I just wish I didn't have to sneak in.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.