Wet Paint

  It is not just some thing about smoking. It is a general tendency of every human being. The moment some body tells us not to do something a strong feeling develops in us to do the very thing that we were asked not to do. If you want to understand what I mean, just consider how people really want to touch and get the wet paint on their hands in spite of a big sign that says ‘wet paint’.

There are many laws which we can’t break for fear of ending up in a cell, but there is no such law against smoking and so it’s just one big, “it’s my life” kind of attitude that makes most youth pick up the habit.

We are all intelligent to know what a message means. When we read the statutory warning that says, “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health” we know what it means. Even a kid knows what it means. It is not like a bolt from the blue. Ignorance is the last thing that we can connect to the habit of cigarette smoking. But then when we see a sign that says ‘wet paint’ it is very much the same thing. The message is loud and clear that the paint is wet but yet we have to touch and make sure.

Cigarette smoking may be dangerous to health but just how dangerous is something that we have to convince ourselves about. But the sorry fact is that unlike wet paint, we just can’t wash of the effects of smoking with water or turpentine. Nor do the effects fade over time, they just worsen. Smoking is not something that we can experiment with. You just can’t take a risk like smoke for a couple of years and say, “look guys, I survived.” It is a matter of life and death.