In Manitoba, there is a customary event before a wedding called "A Social." It is essentially a big party where the community of family and friends gather to wish the soon to be married couple all the best, and to help in raising the money to pay for the wedding, or the honeymoon, or getting started in their life together ...In my seven years in Manitoba I've never been to a social ...
Tonight two dear friends were having their social ... I was looking forward to going for weeks ... I wanted to go and wish them well in the life they've begun together ...
For a number of reasons, I chose NOT to go ... I decided it was better to stay home ...
To digress for a moment ... I have few indulgences in my life ... but one of them, one that I seldom partake of though, is a fine Cuban Cigar ... Yesterday I bought a high-end, good quality Cuban cigar ... Tonight I sat on my front step and enjoyed it ...
I like an occassional cigar ... I like the taste ... I like the feel of it in my mouth and fingers ... I like the smell ... There is something comforting about the smell of a good cigar. It takes me back to a moment in time when I was 6 or 7, and my uncles and my grandfather were on the front step of my grandparents' home and were smoking cigars ... When the smoke of the cigar reaches my nostrils I can close my eyes and be sitting on the steps of the house in Waterloo Ontario once again ...
I can also remember every good cigar I've smoked ... on the beach in Port Hardy watching the stars ... on the back deck of our house in Langley ... in the back yard of our house in Bella Coola ... on the balcony of a hotel in Varadero Cuba ... and my very first good cigar sitting poolside at Mom's in Stratford ... Each cigar was enjoyed with close friends ...
The memories of each cigar are inter-twined with laughter and the companionship of important people in my life ... It's been a very long time since I've enjoyed a moment like that ... I would dare to say - too long ... When I bought the cigar yesterday I was hopeful that it could offer me one of those moments ...
Tonight I chose not to go to a social, and instead sat on the front step of my house enjoying a very good Cuban cigar ... allowing it to transport me back through the memories to a place that is comforting and safe ... I could close my eyes and for a brief moment be on the front step of my grandparents' home, and see my uncles and my grandfather and know that all is indeed well with the world ...
I don't think I was missed at the social ... and never having been, I can't honestly say that I missed being there ... fortunately, like every cigar in the past, this one was enjoyed in the presence of a friend ... tonight though it was only my little buddy Monty ...
It was still a good cigar, but it made me realize that sometimes a good cigar is simply that ... and nothing more ...
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