Onedismus

Onedismus (on-e-dis’-mus): Reproaching someone for being impious or ungrateful.

“I gave you my last dollar and you don’t care. You spent it on a cup of coffee for yourself, and wouldn’t even give me the cup it came it—high quality, good for begging. You bastard!”

I sat there on my piece of cardboard, fuming. Ever since I went homeless after being fired from “Noble Brickworks” for embezzling, I couldn’t even get a job at the car wash. I was screwed for life.

My so-called “friend” Slim had begged my last dollar out of me. His crying and moaning, plus our so-called friendship gave him the edge. He said he was getting chills and tremors from caffeine withdrawal. As a former drug addict myself, I felt sympathy, so I forked over my last dollar.

My beggar-cup was getting frayed and dirty, and I thought for sure that Slim would give me the container his coffee (that I had paid for) came in. He humiliated me by making me beg, and then, wouldn’t give me the cup. He gloated and waved his new cup in my face. I grabbed it out of his hand, and he started crying. I gave it back to him on the condition he share it. I took mornings, and he took afternoons. We held the cup together in the evening and split the proceeds.

As soon as I made enough, I bought a coffee, as much for its cup as the coffee. Me and Slim’s dilemma was over! No matter the names we had called each other, we remained friends.

We don’t beg any more.

I used the computer in the public library to write my bestselling book Our Cups Runneth Over. It documents our cup struggle and its successful resolution—how to allocate finite resources with partners amicably.

It is used by marriage counselors, attorneys, and financial advisers as a how-to manual, and also by the general public to work through difficulties with family and friends.

I am grateful for Slim’s selfishness and bullshit and how it prompted me to do the right thing.