The Mosquito in Life's Mojito

The sun is shining, the weather is sweet, yeah. The emotional climate of the day is happy, humble, and honest - refreshingly simple. The amble down the road in your jandals is exactly where you want to be, a perfect slice of peace. Thoughts drift cloud-like in your mind, sprouting ideas inside your mind's bubble. Smiles pass and go with the people. It's all a dream and then - all is lost. You've found the mosquito in your life's mojito.

To the casual observer the above passage may seem an irrelevant ramble. It may stay that way for some. But for those who care for an explanation I shall make it more explicit. Life, it appears to me, is much like a wave. In any given situation there is an underlying current of expected emotion and action, which allows events to unfold smoothly. The flow of these situations is usually enabled by  good and noble thoughts: consideration for other people; acts of kindness such as opening a door; respect for people's space so as to not get in their way. A little something called emotional intelligence. Since the majority of people appear to not have evil agendas that need to be disrupted, this pattern works perfectly, seamlessly. It instills a sense of order in the world which is liquid and beautiful. Life here is your mojito.

Upon sipping the sweet nectar of the mojito, a mosquito may sometimes spy it's prey. The mosquito may come in many forms, but none of them pretty. The screech of their complaints and disturbance of the peace takes it all away. They might be the person standing in front of you in the queue, a disliked relative, a sassy schoolgirl with socks pulled high, an elderly lady crossing the road. You never do know when the mosquito will attack. But once the drone has hit the conversation and drowned out your Hegelian fantasies with it, the day is never quite the same.

Yet what is it that is so threatening about the mosquito? Well, nothing really. It is more that they disturb the current of what feels good in a situation, sucking the joy out of it for an unnecessary length of time. Upon taking the bus today I observed a prime example of the undercover mosquito: a loud-mouthed passenger. Watching the ticketing system with interest, she tried to shame the driver for no reason other than trying to assert her sense of authority. The seamless situation ruptured, my darkest frown was imparted to her to no avail; the passenger did not notice. And those of the mosquito persuasion never quite do; it's all about their own peace, since they're unable to respect the peace of others. My heart went out to the driver's pride and the tipped mojito, never to be experienced the same again. The mosquito's bitter disease infused the bus, spreading bad blood across its bitten congregation.


The moral of the story? Try not to be a mosquito, if you can help it. Most are considerate and never need to be told. Everyone has a mojito worth saving; the small irritations of life aren't where it's at. It'd just be nicer to not have to walk through their sting to learn the lesson.