|
|
Dalton
Roberts |
|
|
|
If
you are a smoker, don’t tune me out. You may be surprised that someone
understands how you feel. You may even get a useful idea if the good
Lord can help me translate what’s in my heart into words. A
reader wrote, “I wish you would write a column about quitting smoking.
I know you did quit. I quit drinking over 30 years ago through AA but I
have tried everything to quit smoking and I am still puffing away.” In
my generation, smoking was the “in” thing. In movies there was more
smoking than dialog. It was an hour and a half of actors and actresses
lighting up and fondling cigarettes. The
only health negative I heard was “it will stunt your growth.” Not
desiring to be a giant, I started sneaking smokes when I was thirteen.
By the time I was sixteen I was well-addicted and started openly
smoking. After
graduation from high school I went to Trevecca Nazarene College to
enroll. When they saw the Lucky Strikes in my pocket they took me to the
office of the president, Dr. A.B. Mackey. He was a sweet old gentlemen
and he explained with consummate kindness why the school didn’t allow
smoking. He said, “I can see you are a forthright young man and if you
want to throw those in my waste basket I will take your word that
you’ve quit and we will enroll you.” I decided to go home and see if
I could quit before spending my father’s hard-earned money on tuition. I
was able to quit. It was the hardest thing I had done in my young life.
So I made a mental note that seeing something you want more than
cigarettes might help one to quit. I did want to go to college After
college I went to U.T. in Knoxville to work on a masters and one morning
I stopped and bought a pack of the low tar kind. They were so
unsatisfying I was soon puffing my rich tasting Luckies. Like
Mark Twain, I know I can quit smoking because I’ve done it a hundred
times. Over the decades that followed I stopped and started again and
again. Sometimes I would make it a few weeks and sometimes a few years.
But they always reeled me back in The
last time I quit was for my music. I had long coughed between verses of
songs but my poor lungs got so bad I started coughing between lines.
Choosing between music and cigarettes was not such a hard choice. It
gave me the firmness of mind to stick with it. It was my way of thanking
God for my gift of music. Since I was doing it to fulfill my calling, I
asked for God’s help, as they do in AA. The desire was not taken away,
as many people testify, but I did get help. Nicotine
is the most habituating substance on this planet and the psychological
hypnosis we create by years of smoking is just as strong. So I may
backslide again. Fears of lung cancer won’t help me quit. We have all
known someone who died a miserable death from it. So what will help? First,
I will never say “I can’t quit.” I know there is more power in me
than I can ever possibly use. I will say, “I will keep quitting until
I quit, no matter how many times it takes. I am here for the long
haul.” Then
I will put my dearest values on the table with that pack of cigarettes.
My guitar, CDs of my songs, pictures of my children and friends and
other things I want to live for. Try
it. If you still don’t succeed, call me. You know I understand what
you are going through. If we can’t do anything else, we can cry and
pray together and ask for wings to try again. Check out Dalton’s website www.daltonroberts.com and his gathered writings at www.ipsfeatures.com. |
