My goal is to learn to talk just like a smoker. Why would I want to achieve that? It might be: that is the way to get in the front door of the mind of the smoker.

Suppose there's some kind of strange obstruction blocking my getting in; and so I have to devise a method for overcoming it?

Suppose I put down a ‘mattress' and on top of it I lay a piece of ‘floor plate'? How would that help solve the problem? Here's how I'd explain it: The mattress allows for a sort of soft way of stepping; and the floor plate allows me to get a good grip. Using these two stratagems, I might hopefully enter the mind of the smoker.

Now I can talk with him frankly. And when the smoker hears me, I want him to say: "He talks like me!"

And here is the minor miracle: While my words live as data, data won't spoil-but can keep on reinventing itself…Just when it looks like it's over and done: along comes a new smoker, and the text takes on a ‘for-him' tone.

Whether a man is straight or not-whether a woman is a widow or a bride-regardless of circumstances-the words as that data will enter in the mind and make me and the smoker one.

Once that connection is made, great things might happen. No one really knows the outcome when two minds suddenly find something in common to which they can attach themselves.

How many folks have been changed dramatically-finding words they resonate to and using those words to lift their souls up higher?

…I recently met a young man who impressed me with his looks and modest beige suit. He goes to self-help groups a lot. He is dedicated to improving himself. What he said made me think that it was something the smoker might be saying, himself.

He said that "all of us boys are playing roles we don't want to play" and words about "deaf and dumb boys don't know the score".

Since I quote him direct and haven't changed his words, I hope no one will think he means those who are afflicted with deaf and dumb status-but merely those who are given the gifts of speech and sound but choose not to use them in quitting their smoking habit.

 …Somewhere-way back when-we went on a vacation, and when we got back someone else had taken charge over the business of our lives…It looked okay when it happened, but now it's time to start reclaiming our judgment which will surely disallow smokes.