Smoke

One of my earliest, most frequent, and most consistently pleasing memories is of the beautiful nebulae of cigarette smoke that inundated my mom's presence. I still love just to watch smoke. It has to be the most elegant substance in everyday reach. Not to say that I don't enjoy the nicotine, but that's really secondary when it comes to smoking.

"I like to think of fire held in a man’s hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind—and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression.” –Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged