I tried doing it sideways, upside down, downside up, shaking vigorously, gently coaxing, tapping but nothing seemed to work! I tried it while standing up, while seated, while lying prone on the bed and while squatting as I vainly straightened, bent, pushed and kneaded to no avail. I even tried it on the kitchen counter, by the sink, on the table and on the couch to the same disastrous results and just as I was on the verge of giving up voila, it happened!
You know some jobs are very difficult since those that must accomplish their life mission have to force their way through a very narrow opening before any of the competitors are able to do so and then be the first to hit the mark while vigorously fighting a crowd of similar like-minded fellows. You must be fit and prepared at all times ready to run the gamut of various obstacles and impediments to be first to breast the tape………....figuratively speaking!
These guys fight tooth and nail to be the one that sticks their head out first and then to lunge with a final burst of speed at the finish line into a warm embrace before the others so as to be gainfully employed and the rest are then left unemployed until the next opportunity presents itself. Sometimes they try to come in two’s and three’s but usually the expectation is that it shall just be one at a time.
Folks, I am talking about the humble tooth pick………………………(as if I could possibly mean anything else) and specifically the type that is squeezed cheek by jowl into a plastic container with a hole in the top to escape from and whose sole mission in life is to extricate itself from that unholy crush of other toothpicks, pick your teeth and then be forgotten and discarded. Try as you may, it is always a struggle to free up one of these guys particularly in the early stages of their careers before more of their kith and kin have been jettisoned enough to make sliding out through that tiny hole not quite such a herculean effort. Even when a majority of the tooth picks have been all used up it still becomes a nightmare trying to thread those last remaining picks through that one teeny weeny hole!!
The feeling of total satisfaction on finally getting one of them in hand must feel the same to the toothpick as it latches onto your warm embracing fingers knowing that its time has come to do its thing before being consigned to the rubbish dump just another bit of fertilizer for the mulch heap!
Disclaimer – Any similarity to any other activity as seen through the eyes and minds of my ever expanding circle of influence is neither intended nor intentional and is purely a figment of their ever fertile imaginations!!
