Originally Posted by WillieMcFML
where did you get the name "scuter" from?
Some chick on my Facebook spelled scooter that way.
I used to ride an antique Vespa all over the Gold Coast doing 24/7 deliveries for a few months. I had a guarantee 30 min delivery time from time of call. I scraped it close a few times for some very large orders but never once took longer than 28 min.
I was the most professional and reliable service provider for that industry in all of human history. One day I met a mysterious elderly gentleman who literally could not possibly have been more out of place at the recovery party that had made a large order. But he was not there for the party. Someone I'd never met and had no idea who they were supposed to be approached and addressed me by my name and told me I was to meet someone. They turned sharply and briskly moved through the crowd without once looking back.
I was led into a room where an elderly man stood alone, there were no introductions. I was asked some questions about my service,
which I answered honestly. I was pretty certain he knew the answers already,
I saw no reason or motive to deceive or insult him with "no comment". He was disinterested in my answers.
He then proceeded to criticise my performance. But I was not employed by anybody,
so I listened intently. He told me some things I'd done which I had not told him or anyone in the world about; and which he couldn't possibly have known about but this was not just any old man. He was speculating that I probably did this and probably did that and he assumed I was doing something for a specific reason and another reason, perhaps. He was a fucking genius. The things I was doing were very ingenious and intelligent things and I was intensely proud of them. He told me I was a fool. He told me my arrogance was not pride. It might have been the first time I considered the two constructs to be distinguishable. One is insane and invalid. One is sane and valid and without any, there is literally no reason to imagine a need to remain alive. He told me I was stupid to imagine I could even protect myself. I thought that was the most insane thing I'd ever heard in my life,
so I listened intently. He told me all my evasive measures and techniques and protection mechanisms were placing me in a great deal of danger. I couldn't understand how such a thing could be possible, because I'd considered every feasible angle;
so I listened intently.
In the above paragraph is the key to why I'm who I am and why there is almost no one like me. I process information in ways that are impossibly more intelligently than the mean. I mean, here was a stranger I had never met, had no idea who he was, didn't need to listen to and he wasn't in the position to be telling me I'm a fool when I knew I was more brilliant than everyone I knew or met (and this was a fact); he was not my boss or my father and I didn't know him from a bar of soap. I was independent, I had no one I answered to, I didn't have to stand there and listen to that sort of thing, so I did what anyone should do in that position.
I listened incredibly intently, with fascination and gratitude even though he had not given me anything of value and mostly seemed preoccupied with telling me why my brilliance wasn't bright.
He told me why my brilliance wasn't bright. He was right, but I didn't realise that at the time. He told me I was too smart for my own good, that my perception of Reality was being skewed by my capacity to think far too intelligently to be optimal or even sane. I had never considered such a thing could even be possible and saw no reason to imagine he could even be right. If I'd been sitting, I'd have been on the edge of my seat
listening intently.
He gave me some advice that, if only I'd remembered to always remember it, I'd have been a lot better off. In the years that followed, every time I forgot the irrefutable Truth he gave me for motive known only to him, I paid a very heavy price. He explained something I'd never realised about police and how they operate. Did you know police are so fucking stupid, it's almost unbelievable that they manage to catch a fucking coffee from a donut vendor?
It's true.
Did you know how the police catch law-breakers (not to be confused with criminals, who write legislation)?
I didn't.
He didn't have to explain to me why he was right and why I was being moronic imagining that my ingenuity and perfection and faultless operational procedures were all borderline redundant. He just handed me Truth. If I was too stupid to process it, then it wasn't his fucking problem was it?
I was not that stupid. You might be, but I was not.
When he'd finished talking, he paused for a fraction of a second before saying "...you know what I mean?"
I don't really think he would have explained if I didn't, but of course I did. Glumly I nodded. My head was spinning. My throat was mildly burning. I was overwhelmed by sadness, flashes of fury and anger then more sadness.
He said, "Nice chatting with you kid" and walked out. As if we'd just bumped into each other waiting for drinks at a bar or something. Nice chat kid. I barely said anything. I just listened. He walked out and I walked out and I never saw or heard of him again. I sold my scooter the following week. And I never sold pain relievers again.
You know what his advice was?
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