“Do not stoop to tie your laces in your neighbor’s melon patch” — Old Chinese proverb.
This was always one of my favorite sayings. Simple…clever…and requiring a tiny knowledge of melon growing. Do you understand the meaning? I’ll explain and simplify, so that even the ENTIRE Sullivan family can understand it.
It means, it is wise to avoid even the APPEARANCE of impropriety or theft. Maybe your shoe is untied…maybe it isn’t. Maybe you were about to steal the neighbor’s melon and maybe you weren’t. Perhaps it was an innocent shoelace tying…or maybe it was something more malicious, like melon theft.
(Even more simply, in deference to the Sullivans, melons grow on the ground, and it would require bending over to steal one).
Get it? You wait until AFTER you exit the melon patch to tie that shoe. That way, there are no misunderstandings or appearances of scum-baggery. For a tiny bit of effort (waiting a few minutes to tie the shoe), you avoid a big ugly mess of accusations.
It would also apply to, say, getting several bids on a $100,000.00 project to install a bunch of giant TVs and microphones and fancy iPads and stuff all over Lampasas city Council Chambers. By getting three different companies to COMPETE over a project, you insure that everything is (and looks!) above board. This COMPETITION is how you get the best price. Without it, you end up with something like the post office – terrible product and high price.
So…it makes me wonder why everyone in the city is digging their heels in on this thing. Monica could have picked up a phone and gotten two more bids…which costs the city zero. The downside to that is literally ZERO. The upside is that they may save $40,000. So why isn’t it being done?? The fact that they are all willing to go to the mat on such a horrible decision makes me wonder if melons are being stolen. Know what I mean? They are all doubling down and defending a terrible decision that is clearly wasting money for the city.
Maybe Azbell handed somebody an envelope full of cash…maybe they didn’t. Maybe people were promised their OWN 70′ TV from Azbell for their home…maybe they weren’t. There is no way to prove or disprove that and I’m just giving examples of how something that looks this bad might be construed- but it sure makes the imagination run wild….and it could all have been avoided by picking up the phone for two more bids. But they won’t. So why are they all choosing to “die on this hill” as it were?
Why not get two more bids? I’m still waiting for that answer. Especially from those who are hell-bent on attacking me and defending Monica and her melons.