The Indispensable Man

[Tailgate]

Someone on a recent post quoted a few lines from this poem and I've been looking for the original...finally found it.

I think this is worthy of posting for those (myself included) who are about to, or have recently pulled the plug and whose thoughts wander back to the wo*kplace. The truth in this is undeniable.



The Indispensable man by Saxon White Kessinger
Sometimes, when you're feeling important,
Sometimes, when your ego's in bloom,
Sometimes, when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified in the room.

Sometimes, when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfilled hole,
Just follow this simple instruction,
and see how it humbles your soul:

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

You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you'll find in a minute
That it looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example
Is to do just the best that you can;
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is no indispensable man.(or woman)

 

[latexman]

I've never seen the whole poem before, but I've heard the middle quatrain many times over the years.

 

[GrayHare]

Some say if you're not indispensable you're not trying hard enough.

 

[Chuckanut]

Some say if you're not indispensable you're not trying hard enough.

Perhaps. But, my but tells me the guy who says that is the fellow in the Cadillac commercial who doesn't like the French because they take to much time off.

 

[Lsbcal]

But I truly am indispensable. In the sense that my mass is needed for the universe's energy to balance. That is a about all I'm afraid.

Great poem and I like the hand-in-the-bucket metaphor. Thanks.

 

[MRG]

Great, I'd never see the poem. From what I can tell it's very true. A mentor had suggested this to me, makes more sense now that 3 years have passed and the phone hasn't rung.