My brother in law is a rather unusual person. He is quite successful in his life - he has a degree, a fine family, a beautiful new home, runs his own successful business that yields him a six figure income, owns several properties etc.
He speaks in a really loud voice all of the time and always has a silly grin on his face.
He is good natured - not violent or cranky at all.
And he is dumb as a box of broken hammers. I can see why he has a successful business as he is a hard worker and has the gift of being able to talk to strangers as if he’s known them all his life. I cannot figure out how he managed to get a science degree but he did.
The most prominent part of his personality is what I initially thought must be a type of narcissism, but he doesn’t really fit the profile:
He always wants to talk about himself or about things he owns. Here’s a few examples.
He started talking about his drama classes and how he has been asked to mentor some of the other students, and how they all like to talk to him. Then he asked ‘why do people like me so much? what is it about me that draws people to me?’
And another:
He was talking about how his son wastes his time and doesn’t seem to have any direction in life. Then he asked ‘I’ve done well in my life, haven’t I?’.
And one more for the road:
He’s always showing off his home and his many possessions to visitors from overseas. When he does this he will say to them ‘it’s a good house ain’t it?’ or ‘it’s a good car ain’t it?’. And the classic - ‘it’s a good country ain’t it? Do you have things like this where you come from?’ The country being Australia and the visitors are usually from Siberia where they do not have very nice living conditions.
I find him to be both annoying and fascinating - I wonder what makes him behave like this? Does he secretly feel inadequate?
