Sums Up the Dichotomy

In our basement apartment there have been blessings and curses.

• It has stayed relatively cool in this heat.
• We have a fan.

But when folks walk by:

• Sounds carry in through our foot-level windows very well.
• Smoke wafts in easily.

A woman and child just walked by singing a counting song together. It was lovely.

Then the smoke smell followed.

So this happily singing parent was trotting along with child, little hand held on one side, cigarette in the other.

That strange dichotomy we’ve seen all over this country: loving care and treatment of children; family pricing that show families are valued; and the persistent smoking with children in the pram, children at the table, children in the car.

Our kids (and me) are practically gasping when we wander by a smoker. We tend to unconsciously make a face when we breath that smell.

Yessa quickly discovered that people can’t smoke inside the restaurant, but can in outdoor seating, so she’s pushing for us to sit indoors, even in the oppressive heat. I can’t blame her.

I have people I love who smoke, but I’m freely able to not be around them when they are having a cigarette. Thanks to the laws in the U.S., we don’t have to live with second-hand smoke around us all the time. I’m even more grateful for that than I was before.

And here in Germany, the cigarette displays in stores show horrifying pictures of what smoking does to you: lung surgery scars; tracheotomy throat holes, wounds, blackened lungs. It’s more graphic than in the U.S.

And yet all day long we see people; young, old, beautiful, haggard, well-dressed, slovenly, puffing away.

This country confounds and delights me. Such a dichotomy.