Shed Some Demons

I’m fixing to shed some demons.

That’s what you have to do as you grow older. You wrestle with them through the years thinking they’re harmless and they’ll eventually just go away, that they don’t really bother anyone and it’s okay. But when you get old enough you’ll know better.

It’s different for everybody. Some people let those demons linger until it’s too late, and just die with them; then there are the tough ones who defeat them and set themselves free.

I freed myself from one May 1, two years ago. As I hold my writing instrument right here in my formerly nicotine stained fingers, I can honestly say I haven’t had a nasty cigarette in two whole years!

It’s really strange, after you quit, how you wonder why you did anything so stupid for so long?

The first one I ever had was when I was about 11 or 12. It was an unfiltered Camel I snitched from my dad’s pack.
Since then I’ve smoked Picayune’s, Lucky Strikes, Chesterfields, L&M’s, Kools, and finally that macho one called Marlboro.

The first hint that tobacco was a demon came to me in of all places, New York City. I found that if I wanted to smoke one I had to go down 52 stories from my work place and stand out in the weather while I inhaled smoke into my lungs.

One day when I got back up to the 52nd floor after smoking two quick ones right down to the filter, the senior vice president called me up for a conference. Her office was two floors up and we had stairs.

When I got there I could hardly breath, much less talk. You see, that tobacco demon was trying to bring me down.
It took me a few years after that to finally conquer the demon, but I did it.

Right now I’m fixing to grab another demon by the throat and choke the life out of it.