Thank You, Peter

Rest in peace, Peter.

I also want to thank you for helping me get done smoking cigarettes.

When Peter announced that he had lung cancer, for some reason his news resonated deeper in me than another random celebrity with lung cancer. I respect Peter and was truly moved by his story and confession about relapsing in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

I decided for sure that I was done. I also have a baby on the way, which is my prime motivation. So with inspiration and motivation, I smoked my last cigarette on the Friday before Memorial Day, this year. I have not smoked a single puff since.

The news of Peter's death has, understandably, hit me pretty hard, since I thought of Peter as my inspiration for quitting. I think the best thing I can do now for his memory is to stay smoke free for the rest of my life.

Whether I relapse at any point or not, I must say that I am quickly becoming one of those ex-smokers who are the worst kind of non-smoker. I can smell a cigarette in the car next to me on the street, even when my windows are up - yuck! I smell them when someone is around the corner downtown a block away. I half jokingly say that I support a public spaces amoking ban. Maybe that's less than half a joke.

Either way, in the end, I no longer smoke and I have Peter to at least partially thank. I thought that smart people could avoid lung cancer by being smarter than it, or something. Obviously that is not the case.

Rest in peace, Peter. Bless your soul. You have earned moksha.

-Paul