Geoff - that bugged the crap outa me - I'd heard it someplace, and it wasn't the military (Greenjackets in '65-'68)..... Then it came to me - it was on a tombstone in the USA someplace, and I recall thinking what a lot of carving for one man.
"The Indispensable Man" by Saxon White Kessinger, 1959
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 your 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 the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining,
Is a measure of how much 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 of this quaint example,
Is to do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There's no indispensable man.
Well now - I've used it a few times (or at least the spirit of it) to explain to people in the workplace that NOBODY is indispensible, and those who think they are are usually the first up against the wall when the shooting starts.
Apparently the guy who wrote it is pretty pissed people keep publishing it without crediting him - so I thought I'd just give him a name-check for proprieties sake.....
Last edited by Teflon; 20/03/10 5:02 PM.
