Richard

My oldest brother is Richard Scott Bolter. We all call him Scott, but everyone at his job calls him Richard. You see he worked at the same diner as a cook and quit in his 4th day on the job (as Scott), so when he came back a year later and applied for the dishwasher position, he applied as Richard, the owner didn't remember him, and he got the job...he's been there almost two years and is by far the longest tenured person at the diner. The whole Richard thing cracks me up.

Anyway Scott is a different cat, by societal standards. But as my standards become broader, his stock continues to increase. My other brother and I took him back to his home (a room in a downtown boarding house) in St. Pete yesterday, and my middle brother, who doesn't see him near as often as I do, commented about living conditions and guilt and sadness and other words that frankly I had to rebuke. If we had a happiness scale for everyone in the family (grandparents down to kids), I'm not sure where Scott would fall, but he'd certainly be in the top half. If he wanted to talk about it, which I'm sure he doesn't, here's what I think he'd take stock in:

- He has 374 CDs. I tried to borrow the first album by Blood, Sweat and Tears...but he wouldn't part with it. So I settled for Echo and the Bunney Men and The Smitherenes.

- His boarding house room has a bed, a lock on the door, a window unit AC and a bath and toilet down the hall. Compared to homelesss, which he's been for several years of his life (in LA, Pittsburgh, Richmond, and Norfolk), his accomodations are pretty nice.

- Dishwasher at the Dome Diner is a pretty sweet gig. It's much better than working graveyard at Steak & Shake or the grill at Denny's. His boss really likes him and the stability has been good. And, oh yeah, he walks to work (2 blocks).

- He hasn't smoked pot since 1999. He was explaining to us how it zapped his energy for 48 hours following it, and really made him not want to do anything. Somehow Scott can articulate this very well, but teens all across America don't get it.

- When we asked him what we could get him for Christmas, his response was..."I really don't have any material needs." Go Figure. We probed a bit...found some things that we would never tolerate, and went shopping on the way back to Mom's house.

- This same materialism thing was affirmed a few months ago when I stopped by the diner to have coffee with him. Scott (in downtown dishwasher gear) sat down with me (in weekday businessman gear), and the diner cook (his coworker) later asked Scott...

"is that your brother?"

"yeah"

"why don't you ask him to throw a few bucks your way?"

"nah, I don't need anything."

Go Figure.

I'm so glad God gave me Scott for a brother. I'm even more glad that God changed me to allow me to appreciate who Scott is and to see Scott as He sees him.

Thanks God.