There's an old island expression I came across a while ago that had me thinking for a bit, I believe I heard David Weale use it in his stage presentation " A Long Way From the Road". It goes like this " He's so mean he won't shit away from home". The meaning of it is that a person won't give anything to anyone.
It started me thinking about people I had known who might have fit the bill and it didn't take long to come up with candidates for this club. I know most people who will act in their own interest in a way that I think is a bit excessive, but I also know that is just human nature so I come to expect it. The people who I really hold in high regard are those people of character that are able to look above the pettiness of small time self interest. And it might come as a surprise to everyone, but the single group where I have seen this admirable characteristic exibited most often is in people who are in business. Not all of them of course because there are always those who can't get past the desire to have sleepless nights struggling with the guilt that has to come from the way they behave.
On the surface you would think that those who claim a strong christian belief would tower head and shoulders over others in resisting the temptation to be self serving but thats not the case. And I am not counting calculated generosity in filling the collection plate I am speaking about the gut felt reaction to look after their own interests first. Not a particularly good commentary on the christian walk.
My first nominee for shit of the week comes to us from British Columbia and is a man long deceased, but the tradition of shitting at home I am sure is being well carried on by his 2 witless sons. Now I have to clarify this a bit because the father behaved like this as a way of life, and he justified his actions to himself and to others by saying you have to drive a hard bargain, its just good business. His sons however were never so noble, but they couldn't help it because they also fit into the category of being stupid besides.
I kind of admired this guy when I first met him, Bill Stevenson was his name and he was successful, lots of money although I kind of wondered about him because he never seemed to do any work. Then he bought a boat, he took me down to see it one day and it completely blew me away. It was a 48' cruiser with twin diesel engines, 2 full size bedrooms, living room galley , upper bridge and all done in carpet and mahogany. It was just stupendous I had never seen anything like it.
One day I was in visiting a realtor friend who was selling duplexes for Bill and he told me the story of the boat. He had bought it in Vancouver and had struck a pretty hard deal to get it. Then he had the brokerage do a bunch of custom work on the yacht. Once it was done he took it and then told the owner of the business that the saleman had told him the work came with the deal. It got the salesman in real trouble. Ron told me that Bill would come in every day and use his phone to call the Company and would complain about something. He told Ron there was nothing wrong with the boat but that he was going to hound them every day until he got his way.
A bona fide shit.
A guy I knew down here was given a job with a community group I was connected with long enough for him to get his stamps to draw unemployment. One evening we had a load of sod arrive unexpectedly and it had to be unloaded right away. We grabbed everyone coming into Coopers and had them sent down to help unload the truck. This guy came in and when asked he was highly insulted. "I don't do anything for nothin" he said "if I help out I have to be paid." He wondered why we never hired him back next spring.
I helped a guy get a house one time and even hired him so he could get the down payment, felt sorry for him because he had such a hard life. We moved him and did extra work on the place at no charge. Then he refused to pay us the last two thousand dollars because he had painted an old truck I had, claiming the work was worth more than what he owed.
When I was building the house in Eldon I made arrangements with my Director to only work until 3:00 pm which gave me an extra hour to work on the house each day, keep up with work at the office each day and not get so run down I would wear out. A person who had also applied for the job I got called my Director after about six weeks of this too report that I was going home early. The Director called me to let me know who it was and that they obviously had it in for me.
I was especially nice to them after that, the idea was to heap coals of fire on their head.
But at the top of the list has to be this guy Schiavo from Florida who wanted to see his wife die. Fine, its hard to debate the ethics of what happened, maybe she did tell him she didn't want to be kept alive, maybe he had other motives, I don't care to comment on it. But when she was dying he refused to let her parents or any of her family be with her. Then to top it off he had her cremated and buried somewhere near Pennsylvania and now won't tell her grieving parents where he placed her ashes. Isn't he a sweetheart and fine example of someone who fits the saying " so mean he won't shit away from home."
