A thread. My mother was a smoker. A dedicated, passionate smoker. She wasn’t just an addict. She loved the coolness of smoking. She loved cigarettes as fashion accessories. She loved the conviviality of hanging out with other smokers. And for years, she would not quit.
Nothing would convince her. Her children begged her. Her non-smoking husband cajoled her. She was not a stupid woman. She read the news. She understood the science. But she would not give up smoking. It helped to define her.
Then, her friends & family started dying - in their early 50s - of smoking related diseases. Heart attacks. Strokes. Lung cancer. Her best friend. Her favourite cousin. I thought that might change her mind. It did not.
I had a baby, her first grandchild, a baby she adored. I told my mother she could not smoke in my house if the baby was present. Did this convince her to quit smoking? It did not.
What did make her quit? Edmonton’s smoking bylaw. When my mother could no longer smoke in restaurants and stores and malls and theatre lobbies, when she could no longer go to the places she loved? Then, and only then, did she quit.
Scientific information didn’t convince her. Watching people she loved die didn’t do it. Being isolated from family didn’t do it. What finally pushed her to act was being denied access to restaurants & shops and other public places. When smoking became maximally inconvenient.
So. That’s a story about my mum. And about the perplexities of human psychology & human motivation. Maybe you’ll find enough parallels to find a parable. Maybe not. But I wanted to share it today, as Alberta charts its future course.
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