This is a great thread and just what the pipe community needs. I'll smoke a bowl to the bottom with one light...with a match!... and think "damn it feels good to be a gangster"

But it's not always so.

I always try to remind myself, for the greater percentage of pipe smoking history, men were smoking pipes by themselves or for merriment among their friends. Hubris nor pontification was never a requisite in either instance. Smoke your pipe, make mistakes, but most of all enjoy it.

We are in an age where pipe smokers from literally across the planet can share in this relatively small hobby. Tis a great time to be alive.