Smoke and Mirrors

There's nothing like a good art exhibit to put a mirror up to your face.  It will shock and, if it's really good, inspire you.  Good art will demand that you think, and while you're at it, figure out why you think that.  Frieke Janssens Photography has done just that with her Smoking Kids series. 

Let me take a step back.  I first learned of this photo shoot from the article over at Slate.  You can read that here, if you're curious.  Once it was clear that the cigarettes and cigars where not real, and that the effects were added post production, I let myself stare for just a little while.  I realized that I was a little mortified and a little attracted by the images.  They're beautiful!  They're hideous.  I wouldn't want my 7 year old to look at them.  A friend of mine once told me, "you never know how dirty the lyrics to a song really are until you've heard them sung by a child."  The voice in your brain that screams at the inappropriateness of these images should be screaming at the inappropriateness of smoking, in general.

If we're disturbed by children smoking, why do we not seem similarly outraged when an adult does it?  It isn't just a bland "well, they're too young" that will fully suffice here.  What if the child was holding guns?  

Don't worry.  I haven't preached about much yet, and I am not starting here.  This isn't a post about anti-smoking.  This is a post about the things we do without thinking about it.

CNN ran an article a couple of days ago entitled "Why Americans are dying earlier than their international peers."  The article was describing the research of the National Research Council. The NRC learned that Americans were dying sooner than in other high-income democracies.  The research is troubling. 

The data shows that "Americans have the highest prevalence of AIDS in the group. Seniors are at a greater risk of developing and dying from heart disease. And our children are less likely than children in peer countries to reach their fifth birthday."

It took them 18 months, but after convening a panel of experts, they think they can tell us why.  The answer:

Though Americans know what's "good" for them, few act on it. Although we are less likely to smoke and drink heavily than our peers, we consume more calories, have higher rates of drug abuse, are less likely to use seat belts and are more likely to use guns in acts of violence, according to the report. 

I can't fully bring myself to act shocked.