Don’t Forget About Joints
Technology has run rampant in the weed world. Most people never needed more than a spoon and lighter to enjoy their buds, but technology doesn’t care. Herbs have become more potent over time as we made advances in growing. This led to people finding ways they could apply technology to the smoking process itself, and now we have vaporizers, microscopes, flexible bongs, and concentrated herbs.
Those, of course, are all cool things but that’s not the point. Sometimes we can easily get caught up in the fun and novelty of what gadgets have done for toking. But remember the tech people used forever until just a few decades ago?
Remember joints? There is still so much to be said for the satisfying process of rolling up your favorite dried herb just how you like. It doesn’t ever feel like work when going through artful maneuvers to ensure that the outcome is a big, fat, fatty. Remember doing that for the first time? Or the last time? It was probably just as nice. Joint rolling can be a relaxing and creative experience.
Most of us feel close to the ritual that is rolling. A ritual is a collection of habits. Rituals are an important part of being a human. We’ve created them for thousands of years in our cultures and daily lives. Many of us have conscious and unconscious rituals we go through all the time. When they are healthy, rituals give a person a feeling of completion and a defining sense of who they are.
When using the tools of joint rolling, you have to create and fashion something for yourself. It takes discipline and practice, two things that people often accuse the toker of not having. The rolling ritual signals a positive message to your brain.
When you get your rolling tray out, you know what time it is. You know you’re about to chill out, and all your worries can go on pause for a moment, or maybe it’s time to sit and think about those worries mindfully.
Although it delivers the goods more purely and efficiently, somehow the green glow of the Pax light will never captivate in the way that the orange corona of a smoldering blunt will. Fire is primeval. Having it at our fingertips, for our behest makes us feel magical and connected to the world.
A vape sends a clear message that there is no magic, and we are not wizards. Scientist, perhaps. One is not better than the other; they are different. It was inevitable that technology crept into the smoking world, and in many ways, it has been great.
But unlike abandoning your Zune for an I-Phone, the technology we leave behind has a clear root in our evolution. Don’t forget this all started with fire. Blazing up a joint every now and again can remind us of how far we’ve gone.
