Nimoy tweets on quitting smoking
Suffering from COPD at the end of your life is not an easy thing and Nimoy’s deteriorating health during the final year plus of his life was forever reminding him of what could have been had he not smoked or managed to quit earlier (he was a cigarette smoker until his early fifties).
One of the things he often did was to send out tweets that gave an update on how he was doing or urged others to stop smoking; sometimes both were mentioned in a single tweet. Often he lamented ever having smoked himself, noting his family had to move out of their dream home on Lake Tahoe because with COPD “breathing at 6000 ft. too difficult.”
Here are three of those tweets (note that LLAP stands for ‘Live Long and Prosper’, a signature phrase of Spock on Star Trek):
I quit smoking 30 yrs ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP.
Breaking the smoking habit is tough. Worth the struggle. Save the lungs. Living with COPD is no joke. LLAP.
How good it feels to know some folks are quitting smoking because of tweets here !! Blessings and strength to you all. LLAP.
On being Mr. Spock
It seems incongruent Star Trek’s most logical character, and indeed the most logical character TV has ever known, would smoke. But of course it was the actor who played him who smoked, though Nimoy played him so well it’s hard to disassociate the man from the character.
At any rate, given his tweets it is clear that when Nimoy realized his folly, and the needless torment he put himself through, he managed to find within himself a quality also associated with Mr. Spock, though the Vulcan did not like to admit it: compassion for others.
