"To smoke a pipe is not to be considered a vice,
it is art and a way of life!"

About smoking, health and the values of life

One of my pipe racks
My biggest pipe rack 		I am not trying to deny the health risks of smoking. Smoking may damage one's health! Would I start smoking now knowing what I know today, I cannot say for sure. I have been puffing my pipes already at the time when thre was no knowledge about the health risks. Tobacco could even be prescribed by MDs as a medicine against some lung problems as late as in the 50ies. Times have changed and knowledge grown and changed, too.
My pipe smoking is a meditated crime. I value the pleasures I get from it so high that well aware of the risk I have deliberately decided to go on. Funny enough, The Surgeon General reports the estimated life span of pipe smokers to be as long as those that do not smoke at all, perhaps even a couple of months longer! Well, perhaps this is just another example of 'How to Lie with Statistics".
How that then may be, there are also other important values in life besides health. I value very highly my freedom of choice and my ability to enjoy the small pleasures of life as long as I can and want. Most probably I'll prove myself an affordable citizien because I pay enormous taxes for my pleasures here in Finland, and if the anti-smoking movement is right, I'll die before getting the chance to enjoy my huge pension from the state (g).

Internet has brought new dimensions even to this branch of my life.
We pipe smokers have a club of our own in the net. Today there are more than 3000 members in the mailing list of Pipes Digest. A couple of years ago when I joined in, there were only about 600 members. By the help of Net I have come to know e.g. a pipe master from Bologna, an American guru in pipe making, who also happens to fish as his hobby, a skillfull 3D animator, writer and artist in Long Island, NY, having a vast knowledge of Sibelius and Kalevala, a Jesuite in San Francisco, a Finnish MD, together with whom we have had wonderful fishing trips, and many, many others!

I have bought pipes through the net already for some years. These include both new and "estate pipes", which are used and usually well cleaned (salt/alcohol), often better than the brand new ones, which have to become smoken in. The process of smoking in a pipe can sometimes be a head-ache.
The famous Finnish army general and known author of many novels and short stories, Kurt Martti Wallenius used to give his new pipes to old Sami grammies and grandpas when leaving for his long fishing trips, which could be as long as a month or two. When returning he took back the pipes, now thoroughly smoken in. A talented, creative man of wit he was!

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