The Lesson In The Bucket

From time to time someone's prideful arrogance will assault me. "I'm good at what I do," it will boast, "and I'll call the shots in our relationship. You have to do things my way, for I can't be replaced." But a line from an old poem sings another song: "Take a bucket and fill it with water, put your hand in it up to your wrist, pull it out and the hole that's remaining is a measure of how you'll be missed."

In my first job, I quickly found myself without the skills to carry out my assignments. Consequently, I made humbling visits to some real masters of the profession, seeking advice on how to do this or that. Their bottomless bags of tricks made them appear indispensable, an enviable position in that layoff-friendly world.

Not long thereafter, a coworker pointed me to a poem tacked on the wall of his cubicle. It shed a little different light on this idea of being indispensable. Perhaps those sages were more vulnerable than I thought.

The ensuing years have proven the poem's message. Anyone can be replaced. Only the reasons vary: sometimes company politics, sometimes personality conflicts, sometimes an indiscretion, sometimes causes unnamed. A terse notice will mysteriously announce that a particular person has left to "pursue other interests."

A friend reports that freshman legislators in our state were taken to the mostly-deserted top floor of the state capitol building. They were ushered to a room filled with photographs -- some going back more than 50 years -- of members of bygone legislative sessions.

Wondering why they had been dragged to that remote outpost, their host explained: "You need to realize something. This place was running before you came, and it will run after you leave." Images of their own dusty portraits burst some bubbles that day.

Pride will pump up our self-sufficiency, indispensability, and even invincibility. But it's just not so. We need one another -- and we need to help bear one another's burdens. If we begin to believe otherwise, a painful tumble is in the offing. And there's a lesson to be learned in the bucket.

NO INDISPENSABLE MAN
(Author unknown)

Sometime when you're feeling important,
Sometime when your ego's in bloom,
Sometime when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified in the room,

Sometime when you feel that you're going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to your wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is a measure of how you'll be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you'll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.

The moral in this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember...t
There is no indispensable man.

Copyright 1999 James McAlister

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