We are the fish folks. We are swimming in a big tank. This tank is very very big. And it has clear blue water and we are all pretty tropical fish. I am an irredescent green and white fish, obviously. {Ha Ha} The boat above us is filled with greedy tobacco company fellas who are smoking big imported Cuban cigars and laughing and enjoying their money. They have so much money that they are having a party on this boat. They are really having lots of fun with all that money.
We are the fish under their boat. We are swimming around and around and talking to each other and socializing and forming schools and joining different groups. But we are fish to them.
To us, we are important individuals with lives and children and issues and thoughts and loves and dreams and goals. To them, we are merely fish!
They dangle the hook with the cigarette on the end. We swim past and notice it. We swim away. We swim back again and take a closer look. We might come even closer on the next pass by. And then, we might come close enough to bite. Which of us is going to bite that hook?
Some might bite it hard enough to be pulled up to the surface. If you do, you risk being hauled in. If you get hauled in, you risk being in a tuna can. You want to be in a tuna can? Not me! I'm not gonna bite! I'm not gonna look. Okay?
I was out on my porch this past weekend (my smoking porch) and with a very good smoking friend. She & I smoked the same brand. I have not smoked for over 4 months. She is very afraid to smoke around me for fear that she will tempt me. I said to her "Please, feel free, I am fine!" But she left those cigarettes (MY BRAND!!!) on the little table outside and before she went home, I ran out there and grabbed them.
It was the first time I have touched a pack of cigarettes in over 4 months. They felt very familiar in my hand. But I have a strong mental image of that hook and I know better than to bite. I won't look at that hook or swim past it and contemplate it. I refuse to be tempted by it.
If you follow the line from the hook to the surface you find the truth. Come on people, the truth behind the cigarette is money. It is always money! And the secret to success for the cigarette industry is - that hook! And that hook is addictive nicotine. I know it and you know it.
So, little fishy, whoever you are .... beware of that hook you are swimming around and around and around ...
