The Passing Of Gnats

Yesterday, for no reason at all, a good gnat died. It died in the most useless and senseless way possible. It suffocated to death in my nose. Additionally it died thinking that I was the enemy.

As I was standing outside, contemplating torching my place of business to the ground, just to see it burn, a gnat flew up. It must have sensed my rather unpleasant thoughts because it started to flutter excitedly under my nose, like a divining rod that reads evil. In an attempt to remove the annoyance from my face, I waved my hand at it.

The goal was to move it along. This isn't to say that I've never murdered a gnat in cold blood. I have. As a matter of, fact had I not been so upset about my day/week/month at work, I would have killed the little dust speck right then and there. Instead I decided to give it a free pass, a proverbial "get out of jail free" card.

Apparently the gnat didn't get my meaning and, fearing for it's life, it sought the first hiding place it could. This was a mistake.

I stumbled back slightly when then the flying dot launched itself at full speeds into my left nostril. I have to say, that even though this creature was only a tiny spot of life, it managed to create quite a lot of stir up there. A very unpleasant circumstance. After a second or two I expelled the irritant, even though my nose would twitch for hours later. I'm sorry to say, he didn't survive the encounter.

Makes you wonder how often we do this ourselves... When we think there are no more option left to us, we choose the path towards destruction out of sheer desperation. When, if we had stopped for a moment and considered our situation, we could have shortly been on the path to freedom. It's strange what you can learn from the passing of gnats.