Reflective Wanderer

I have been an occasional pipe smoker for the past couple of years, and it has brought me great enjoyment. As I think about why I do it, five reasons come to mind: it brings people together for good conversation, it connects one to pipe smokers of the past, it allows interaction with fire, there is a refined pleasure in the taste, tools, and rituals of the practice, and most importantly, it provides a space for quiet contemplation. Let’s unpack these points.

1. Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had have been over a pipe. This is for two reasons–the conviviality of sharing an experience, and the pause of conversation needed to keep the pipe lit allowing time to think before speaking. When people talk, they share words, when they share an activity, they share in action. Pipes combine those things very well. Allowing a shared activity to engage the hands, but not to the degree that prohibits conversation. It also provides time to reflect before speaking, a rare trait in conversationalists. Good talks take place over a shared bowl.

2. Many of my heroes of past generations were pipe smokers. I am mindful of Tolkien’s Hobbits with their Shire-ly wisdom, the gentlemen of the old South, or most of the great nineteenth and twentieth-century writers. I feel connected to an older, slower, more dignified past with a pipe in my hands. My great-grandfather, once the president of Penn State-Behrend, smoked a pipe. I vaguely remember him, but I clearly recall seeing his pipe, so I light up in honor of him and the gentleman of past generations.

3. Fire is one of the five ancient elements. In an age before electric stoves and central heating, it was vital to survival. Modern man has little utilitarian need for fire, yet there is a primordial affinity to this gift of Prometheus. Lighting a pipe and the art of keeping it lit puts the smoker back in touch with fire — this might just be what the man of today needs.

4. It is a pleasurable thing to do. The taste of the variety of tobacco leaves, having a well-made piece of art in hand that might outlast your own life, and the rituals of selecting, lighting, tamping, and sampling are very satisfying experiences. Modern life is like a cigarette, quickly inhaled for the quick hit of temporary gratification. A pipe is different. They are not tools of quick nicotine dispensation (they contain less nicotine and none of the addicting chemicals a cigarette does) to be used and tossed aside, but rather an investment in sitting still and enacting a ritual. Modern religion, activities, and government are severely lacking in ritual which I define as the consistent ordering of actions according to a prescribed order for a higher end. These elements heighten the enjoyment, providing a refined and satisfying experience.

5. Finally, when engaged in solitude, they facilitate leisurely contemplation. Human beings were created to contemplate. The highest form of contemplation is in the worship of God. If there is anything modernity tries to kill, it is the contemplative life. The iPhone calls for attention, the hustle after material goods, and the seemingly endless opportunities are killing the ability to be at a pace that allows deep thought. Leisure is the surest path to contemplation. “Leisure,” according to the philosopher Josef Pieper, “is the contemplative reception of reality through our highest activities.” In other words, doing things that allow the mind the freedom to grasp the world as it truly is. When I light a pipe, I am committed to sitting still for an extended time. What a luxury! The activity is focused, demanding a mindful presence, but leisurely to allow the mind to look at the world, trying to apprehend the nature of things as they are. The pipe engages the hands, leaving the mind free.