Akira The Don Lunchbucket
Men don't struggle for power
That isn't what men do, not if they're civilised
They size each other up and elect the competent to lead them
And they do that at every level of society
I worked in a rail crew in Southern Saskatchewan
They're rough guys, like a lot of them had been in prison, you know
And when you first came onto the rail crew you got a stupid nickname and people teased you
And I remember this one kid called Lunchbucket, that was his nickname ‘cos he came to the rail crew with a lunch bucket that looked like his Mum had packed it
That was a bad idea
So they named him Lunchbucket, which he wasn't very happy about
Well that was a mistake, he should've taken it with a smile
And then he was always peevish and irritable and if you asked him to do something he'd whine
Soon, there was about 60 men on this crew it stretched out about a quarter of a mile down the tracts, soon anonymous harassers were throwing pebbles at him during work
We had hardhats on and so the game was let's see if we can hit Lunchbucket in the hardhat with a pebble, and then that was purposeful because he couldn't take a joke
It was like, well let's see if he can take this joke
Clunk
And then he just got more and more peevish and the pebbles got bigger and bigger
And you know a week later Lunchbucket was gone, having not learned anything from the experience
But you know, the men were testing him out
It's like can you take a joke?
Can you be useful?
Can you at least be amusing?
Is there something worthwhile about you?
It's like no
It's like ok well then you're out of here because you never know when we actually might need to depend on you