Looking Forward to a Smoke

At this very moment, I am greatly looking forward to sitting down this evening and enjoying a relaxing smoke from my pipe. This has come to be one of the leisure activities that I greatly enjoy. It is an activity that is conducive to deep thought, good conversation, and even just idle sitting. I love the aesthetics of and designs of pipes. I love the aroma of good tobacco. I love the care and attention, that a good smoke requires. I love attempting to perfect the subtle art of maintaining a cool, consitent burn. I love that a pipe is not merely a fun activity that you can participate in without truly giving yourself to, but that it requires something or your time, your patience, and your skill. At times like this one, while I am in the midst of finals and worn out by studying, there are few prospects that are more appealing than being able to sit down, forget about schoolwork for a while, and focus my attention on keeping a good light.

These thoughts were inspired by an article I found on pipe smoking by a guy named Phil Webb. I have no idea who he is and I admit, it's a bit sappy (well, maybe more than a bit) but I particularly liked it and found it to reflect some of my own feeling. I found that I could especially relate to this bit:

I smoke a pipe because it is, well, a bit eccentric. Two men I admire greatly are known for "going against the grain". C.S. Lewis while making no bones about his faith and beliefs also made no secret of the fact that he enjoyed a good drink and a cigar, much to the consternation of many modern evangelicals. Francis Schaeffer, probably one of the (if not the) greatest thinkers at the end of the 20th century enjoyed a glass of sherry after his evening meals whilst discussing the philosophy of the day with his students at L'Abri, profoundly confusing those who equate piousness and asceticism with belief and obedience. While smoking a pipe will not make me a great thinker (although it does help set aside time to think) it does, in a way that is tangible at least to me, provide a link to men whose thoughts I admire and to whose greatness I aspire.