You can't always get what you want

Tiquismiquis (pronounced 'tikismikis') is one of my favourite Spanish words. It means excessively fussy or finickity (one of my favourite English words, funnily enough) and is almost onomatopoeic in its accuracy. You can readily imagine the thin, pursed lips of the tiquismiquis person in question as they remonstrate with a poor, beleaguered minimum-wage waiter on a busy Sunday lunchtime shift because he had the temerity to serve a coffee that was too hot/cold/milky/coffee-flavoured. No, if there's one thing any right-thinking human being would not want to be remembered for after they've snuffed it, it's being tiquismiquis. (Or tight with money, but that's another conversation for another day).

What any sentient soul would really want to aim for, of course, is quite the opposite characteristic, which I think we should hereby name 'antifinickity' simply because it sounds excellent when you say it out loud. Antifinickity people are my favourites (apart from genuinely funny people but that's also another conversation for another day). 'No pasa nada' is their phrase of choice because they can consistently see the big picture: first, whatever minor inconvenience that has just occurred is precisely that - a minor inconvenience - and secondly, we're quite literally among the most fortunate people ever to have lived on the face of the earth. Consequently, in the grand scheme of things, having to endure a bit of vanilla ice cream rather than the chocolate flavour they actually ordered isn't the greatest of hardships. They also tend to think, "You never know, I might even like this more than the chocolate."

However, that's not to say that if a company/person is doing a lazy or shoddy job, they shouldn't be called out on it; of course they should. That's not being in any way fussy, it's being responsible and it's quite a different matter.

It's somewhat counterintuitive, but antifinickity people actually get their own way a lot more than their opposites, in the sense that they enjoy a sense of freedom unavailable to the person who insists on a precise number of ice cubes in their overly-garnished gin and tonic. Just taking what comes - within reason - and being grateful to be able to do so is a profoundly liberating personality trait and something we should all be obliged to instil in our children. "Don't like that particular lollipop, son? I'll have it then. Unlucky." Granted, there'd be a few tears and tantrums in the short term but a lot of very happy waiters in the future.

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