The Legend of Shiga Dembo!

At my first job in live television I had a co-worker whom I saw as an authority figure and a friend.  I'm not certain he ever liked me, but I really did look up to him. He was not my supervisor and really played no role in my career growth, but his personality deserved respect. 

He was a southern gentleman, much older than me, and was always there for you with a good laugh and a story about his life growing up in a sleepy southern town.  The antics he and his friends shared were wonderful.  I would sit at the office for hours with nothing to do other than listen to him tell his tales.  I was mesmerized and I laughed heartily.  He was a very entertaining soul.

But when there was work to be done, he was the first to motivate us all.  When you made a mistake on the job and needed to be corrected and learn from your error, he was there to guide you.  Often he would lead by example but he always led by inspiring!  He would often, passionately shout out a name.  It was a foreign name, but it was a name that through his mouth and with his voice would command you; it would control your will; it would motivate you to go beyond and above!

"SHIGA DEMBO!"   He would decree.

"Shiga Dembo... We need to clean the studio, son!"
"Shiga Dembo... That set needs to be re-lit, son!"
"Shiga Dembo... This is how you focus a camera, son!"
"Shiga Dembo... You don't know where that finger's been, Son!!!"

Sentences often ended in "Son."  It was comforting, as if, we were all the children of the great leader, Shiga Dembo.

I never knew anything about Shiga Dembo.  My co-worker would never discuss the great leader.  I saw this as a way to inspire me to learn of his greatness on my own.

Shiga Dembo must've embraced all cultures although I cannot identify his race solely by his name.  I assume he was either comparable to a Zulu Commander or perhaps a Japanese Shogun.  Maybe, he even crossed all borders and was a Zulu Shogun (hey, if Richard Chamberlain, Tom Cruise and Keanu Reaves can do it...).

I could only assume that Shiga Dembo was a great commander of armies and inspired them to push themselves to the limits to protect the goodness of their families and their spiritual way of life.  He would protect his nation from foreign raiders who wished to corrupt the purity of the Utopian society he alone had been able to provide.  When all hope was lost on the battle field, it was Shiga Dembo who would grab a symbol of his people and charge into his enemy motivating his people to raise up and survive!

There are no books about Shiga Dembo.  No monuments are dedicated in his honor.  Google cannot find him.  But I knew he existed.

One man, a man who grew up in a much more prejudicial world where other cultures were not equal let alone accepted even for their astounding contributions to modern society, was able to see through the ignorance and was willing to use the lessons of Shiga Dembo to inspire future generations.

When this particular co-worker left our station and moved on to a larger market, I refused to let the legend of Shiga Dembo die.  So, when I had a crew of my own to supervise and interns to educate, I would use the name to inspire them!  "SHIGA DEMBO!" I would announce as I walked up to my crew lounging about with nothing to do..."get to work!"

Then one day, an intern asked "Why do you say Shiga Dembo?"  I had made a breakthrough.  And so I shared the assumed stories in the hopes that they might one day bring peace to future generations.  And that's when it happened.

Another older southerner from a different department, heard me talking to the intern.  He too was witness to many of the inspiring statements that had been made by our former co-worker inciting the spirit of Shiga Dembo.

Out of respect, he waited for the intern to leave before taking me aside and saying:

"He was sayin' 'SH#T GOD D%MN BO' ya dang'd ignerent yankee!"

As it turns out, I don't always understand a southern accent too clearly.