And That Is Why I Smoke Weed.

So this is exciting. People are reading and some are posting comments. A couple of you have asked very provocative questions and i think that's great. More on those specific questions later.

I think i'm going to begin to broken record this to death, but i encourage to post comments. I know that she's a newborn, but this blog is largely going to be shaped by the people who read it. The questions you ask, the subjects you broach, the jokes you make are all going to help me steer this blog into a positive, unique direction, instead of into the deep, dark abyss of the blogosphere. But remember, be good boys and girls. It's only weed.

An anonymous poster asked me why i smoke pot. I suppose at this point i'm addicted, which is fine. I'm not trying to belittle addiction at all, but every single person is addicted to something or someone. We all have something we need to get rid of, but instead tie to our backs like we were strapping a canoe onto a station wagon. Trying to pretend as if there's a hierarchy for addiction is only going to reinforce the idea that certain kinds of people are addicts. You, me, and everyone we know. And as far as what i'm carrying on my back, i think i'm ok with what i got this time ‘round.

So what is it that i think i need that only pot can give me? Perspective. In a journal entry, April 2005, written with my left hand, i debate "whether weed fools me into thinking that everything is going to be ok or if, in fact, everything is going to be ok, and weed helps me see that more clearly." Thus far, everything has been ok. Scary things happen and i seem to survive them. We all do; or else we don’t, but that’s life. Like Siddhartha was to discover, life is suffering.

One of my teachers recently told us that suffering was an extreme translation and that the Buddha meant something more like, "life is chafing." It's awkward. It's uncomfortable. There is, of course, terrible suffering, but even when things are going well, there's often a weight hanging in the air. The weight of knowing that things can't stay gold forever.

Weed seems to help me have perspective about my own suffering. Of course, that perspective can be a little bit off. There are plenty of things that i worry about needlessly and weed often helps me let those things go. But then again, there are things that i should be concerned with and weed sometimes relaxes me to the point of laziness. I've been smoking long enough that i can see when it's happening and manage to get my ass in gear. Most of the time.

I think New York is the best city to have a good, hopefully not-so-paranoid stone on. I can see the dirty beauty of Brooklyn so sharply when i walk around my neighborhood, buzzed and smiling. A summer night, walking around the park, stoned: it makes me feel infinite.

And that is why i smoke weed: an essay by StonedGrrrl.

My answer will be different next week. I'll let you know when i think of more reasons. How about you guys? Why do you smoke? (In my effort to make commenting as easy as possible, questions that i want specific feedback on will be in bold. This doesn't mean that you have to answer those questions. But if anyone out there wants to participate and is feeling a little shy, i wanna be able to give a little guidance and structure)

That's all for now, kiddies. Tune in tomorrow when we find out if, in the words of one commenter, i am a "committed" stoner or not.

xo.