I thoroughly enjoyed this short piece by a writer recently hit by a carelessly tossed cigarette butt.
Here’s a taste (emphasis mine):
What I failed to appreciate is that as a smoker, you are, by nature, a rebel. You laugh in the face of polyps and emphysema. Yes, it’s a hacking laugh that ends in a series of frightening coughs, but you do laugh. And unlike the rest of us scared little non-smoking hamsters who docilely put our garbage in garbage cans, you, brave puffer of toxic chemical additives, are not bound by something so arbitrary and frivolous as a trash receptacle. The world is your trash can. You defiantly blow plumes of noxious gas into its air. You nonchalantly toss crumpled cigarette packs into its waters. And, as you showed me, you disdainfully throw your used-up smokes onto its ground, even if they must first bounce off another human being before reaching land.
Ha. Good reading, but sadly, so true.
