Cigars and Conversation

My recent foray into the subject of silence set me to thinking about the dying pastime of conversation. It occurred to me that with the loss of silence, we are losing our time to think our own thoughts. We are forced to succumb the that spawn of the information age, the sound bite. We take in our information from the sound bite, we think in sound bites, hence we express ourselves in sound bites. Our ability to think whole thoughts, to follow matters through to their logical end, is impeded with the result that sharing our thoughts with others through thoughtful, reasoned and civil discourse is rapidly disappearing.


It's quite beyond me that I failed to mention in my introduction my affinity for tobacco products. I'm a craven nicotine addict. I know that it's quite an admission to make given the modern attitude towards tobacco, but I'm unrepentant, even proud of the fact, that I so enjoy smoking the leaf. Cigarettes are my main poison of choice, but my true love, my passion, my raison d'etre is cigars. Without discussing brand names, I'll tell you that my favorite cigars tend to be Honduran made. My preference runs towards the maduro cigars, those with a dark tobacco wrapper, rich and oily, with a leathery texture and a bit of spice and pepper to the smoke.

My daily cigar is the high point of my day, so much the better when I have a friend to share a smoke with. Now, there are certain rules that must be followed in the smoking of a cigar, rules that amount nearly to a ritual. Most of the rules support the notion that cigar time is, when alone, a time of thought and contemplation; when smoked in the company of others, it is a time of companionship and conversation. No interlopers are permitted. This includes electronic interlopers. No TV, no radio (perhaps instrumental music), no dishes.

During this timeout from the day I either take time to think without the distractions of the world, or to engage others in conversation sans those same distractions. The cigar is really just an excuse to do so. It's really more of a time to bond with friends, to exchange ideas, to develop thoughts.

I don't advocate cigars for everybody, but I do advocate some means of taking time out to think, to converse, to exchange ideas in a civil manner. The involvement of a common interest, in my case, cigars, simply facilitates this timeout.

Try it. Take some time out with a friend, undistracted by the world. I think you'll be glad you did.

Til next time, all the best. Joe