🍊 The Breakfast

Marching along with a definite intention and a mysterious motive, he crossed the perimeter.

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🗓️ Written in 2003

Another high octane Sunday was over and I woke up to the Monday morning blues. Send my clock to snooze for that crucial 5-min extension. It was a big day ahead with my presentation scheduled for 10:30 am at the corporate office. Double-checked my arsenal for presentation slides and last-minute updates. Everything done and satisfied, I moved to the breakfast table.

Poured me a tall, sparkling apple juice, and proceeded with the toast and marmalade. My secret recipe is to spread the butter on the toasted bread to melt it into the crispness. Then spread the marmalade and sprinkle a dash of sugar. In a momentary lapse of short-lived frenzy, I managed to spill a few crystals of sugar onto the placemat. 

While I sat biting into the toast and complaining about my hectic life, I saw a six-legged friend entering my otherwise solitary breakfast domain. Marching along with a definite intention and a mysterious motive, he crossed the perimeter and entered the mat zone. In a minute or two, he struck gold. A rock hard, transparent crystal of sugar.

I was about to dissuade him from his task. It neither bothered me nor was I alarmed by his intrusion. Being a creature of seemingly greater intellect and holding a higher slot on Darwin’s chart, I felt obliged to correct the inferior being. On second thought, I refrained and observed. He was small built, vibrant, and looked quite smart in his deep orange attire. His targeted payload was almost five times his weight. From somewhere in the corner of my cranial magma 😉 came the satisfying thought that my friend could carry around ten times his own weight. So the math was right, and we were both on the same page. What troubled me was not the size of the crystal, but its composition. The poor creature tried in vain to bite and hold it in place. The grip just kept dissolving with every bite. 

He would bite, try lifting, but it just kept crashing down every time with a massive subsonic thud. After around three minutes and lots of tries, he stopped, took a few steps behind, disgusted, disheartened and irritated. I now had someone in a similar situation like mine that morning, late night and work pressure coupled with a do or die presentation; clock ticking. He walked around it, cursing and frustrated by the state of affairs. I told him it was not worth it and even offered some toast as it would be a lesser hassle to carry. There was the added advantage of not gathering much attention or envy from the onlookers. This would also guarantee a safe passage to his safe house. To my dismay, he still did not take my advice or even lift an antenna to acknowledge my being.

To my surprise, he was at it again, but this time with even greater vigor and determination. At that moment it felt like he was another of my colleagues trapped in the corporate web; we seemed to be in a similar state of professional turmoil. I saluted him for his perseverance. The way he saw it, this was not a life or death matter; It did not stress him with the burden of failure. All of a sudden, he did the impossible. He lifted the heavy crystal and walked an amazing 3 cm, at the end of which the grip dissolved and the enormous block thrashed on to the mat again. I saw his world crashing on him. He stood in dismay with a great frown across his face. I sighed, and he looked up at me with his cute, sad little eyes as my breath brushed against his cheek. I came out of his macroscopic world for a moment and checked to see if any of his friends were around to lend a helping bite. There were none available. As I helplessly returned to his world, it surprised me to find that he was at it again. I felt pity and a strong sense of respect. He was at it on his own, without a soul to help. Exhausted but with an undying determination. I wished him luck, though sceptical at heart.

Then it happened. He seemed to pause for a long breath and then with firm determination moved forward and with one bite lifted the mammoth crystal and disappeared down the corner of my breakfast table.  

I do not know how he accomplished this, but he did. This singular encounter with an apparently lesser being taught me a lot that day. There was a lot to learn, and however much I did, I would not be a greater being than the smallest of creatures around me. Unconditional determination is the true fuel that keeps you going in a crisis and not always logical reasoning, though it helps…. a bit. Advice from a popular superior source may not always be the right advice. Go by your instincts, it helps. Later that day, my presentation went great, and I scored a few points.

Epilogue

Life has moved on and so have I. Years have passed and lots have happened since 2003. The lessons the ant taught me remain….fresh in my memory.

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