Maybe it's like becoming one
with the cigar. You lose yourself in it; everything fades away: your worries,
your problems, your thoughts. They fade into the smoke, and the cigar and you
are at peace.
Raul
Julia
Ever noticed how, when we want to paint
the image of the old school gentleman, the picture only seems complete when you
place a cigar in hand? Even the scent of those hand rolled tobacco leafs give a
sense of dignity and elegance, of an educated wisdom of a time gone by were people
would take the time to enjoy the simple things. Life moved at its own pace. It’s
not like you could rush craftsmanship or agriculture or even travel. But the
world changed, and now we can do more in less time. Those days of old are gone,
replaced with of men rushing from one place to another, living in a cycle of “hurry
up and wait,” suffering from stress, depression, and heart problems as the
hours of the day don’t seem to be enough for everything we set up to do.
Aren’t you glad that those olden
days are gone?
Yes, I know that we live in more convenient
times, where we live longer lives than those gents of old. We have better
access to, well, everything; as we hold the world in the palm of our hands. We
live in a different world than our forefathers, as our world is now defined by
the idea that time and money are interchangeable concepts. The more time we
dedicate to something, the more money it will make/cost and the more money we
invest into something the more/less time we will have to deal with it. So time
became as much a source of frustration and anxiety as money. As we pursue one,
we become constantly pressured by the other.
And that’s where a good cigar comes
in. From the instant you pull out that cigar and get your first whiff of the
country, you need to stop looking at your cellphone, your watch, and your
wallet. Everything comes to a grinding halt as you let yourself enjoy a moment
of peace, where your thoughts start to order themselves out and you regain the
perspective of an unrushed life. This isn’t chain smoking cigarettes that you
puff into yourself as if you were being timed for a speed challenge. This is a
burn as slow as how time should run when you don’t care how much time it takes
to enjoy.
In a way, you get lost into your own
personal meditation, or into pleasant conversations when shared with someone
else. You learn to slow down your usual aggressive go-getter hustle that if
left uncheck will drag you kicking and screaming into an early retirement of
life. You learn to reconnect with your dulled out senses, as you let yourself
the opportunity to reconnect with the simple pleasures of having a human body. You
learn to let yourself open up to your own soul as you let your senses feel
again, your mind wander, and your heart feel.
I know, it might sound bad my
promoting smoking, but consider how a cigar can easily be replaced with a
hookah, vaping, coffee, tea, a good spirit, or even a desert when done
correctly. When I mean correctly, I mean you have can’t chug down that ultragigantico
frapumoccalatte while running form one text to the next. It means you
need to sit down, forget you have a time limit and enjoy. Breathe in the aroma
of that scotch, or get lost in the legs of that deep red wine, or watch how
that simple tea bag magically turns simple hot water into something more, a lot
more.
As we get lost in the thrill of the
hustle, or even lost in the routine of the rat race, sometimes we need to take
a break and get off. We need to refocus and reconsider what we are doing, to
reconnect with our own humanness. We were never meant to live to work and pay
bills. We work and pay bills to have the time and space to live.
