A Tribute to the Free People

I visited them. They had a guest whom I know at a distance. They prepared coffee for us. When the guest held his cup in one hand, he took out of his pocket, with his other hand, a pack of smokes. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it as if he was sitting alone on the balcony of his house or in a park! We were four adults and a child. I found it odd that the guest has not been considerate to anyone of us, old or young! I am not claiming that this scene is to be generalized. I am writing about it, just to demonstrate what addiction can do to us. No selfishness is more eloquent than for Man to become his own world. I have a close friend who smokes, and you do not know when he does, and when he quits smoking, you do not know that either. I once asked him about his smoking and his quitting. He said: “anything that makes me feel that it is starting to enslave me, I try to prove to myself that I am stronger than it”! Finally, my friend overcame this bondage. This is a tribute to the free people.