Maybe it’s Mother’s Day.
Maybe it’s graduation time.
Maybe it’s Memorial Day.
Whatever, something about this month makes me have some more serious thoughts. I’m reminded of a quotation and poem I’ve put in Jottings columns in years past.
First the quotation:
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.
The first time I heard this, I was in high school in Vernon. I have repeated it many times and frequently apply it to myself, and sometimes to others about the time I or they start feeling important. This is the middle stanza of a five-verse poem. All together they go like this:
The Indispensible Man
Sometimes when you’re feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego’s in bloom.
Sometime, when you take it for granted,
You’re the best in the room.
Sometime, when you feel your going,
Would leave an unfillable 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 your 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 just the same as before.
The moral in this quaint example,
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is no indispensable man.
More? More!
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
– – – 0 – – –
A man asked, in a letter, if he could bring his dog to the hotel. The answer was immediate.
‘I’ve been operating this hotel for many years. In all that time, I’ve never had a dog steal a towel, bed clothes, silverware or pictures off the walls.
‘I’ve never had to evict a dog in the middle of the night for being drunk and disorderly. And, I’ve never had a dog run out on a hotel bill.
‘Yes, indeed, your dog is welcome at my hotel. And, if your dog will vouch for you, you’re welcome to stay, too.?
– – – 0 – – –
This from Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s about a bumpy bus ride on a back road.
In one seat a wispy old man sat holding a bunch of fresh flowers. Across the aisle was a young girl whose eyes came back again and again to the man’s flowers.
The time came for the old man to get off. Impulsively, he thrust the flowers into the girl’s lap. ‘I can see you love the flowers,? he explained, ‘and I think my wife would like for you to have them. I’ll tell her I gave them to you.?
The girl accepted the flowers, then watched the old man get off the bus and walk through the gate of a small cemetery.