Are You A Crab In the Bucket?
And, if so – which one?
When I was a teenager, my parents had a summer place on the Jersey shore (yes, I’m from Philly). It was right on the bay, and my Dad’s joy was to sit on the dock with a couple of fishing poles and crab baskets lowered.
Every now and then he’d pull up the baskets to see if crabs had made the death march into the wiry prison. If they had, they’d soon leave their beloved waters for a bucket, where they’d await their inevitable transport
to the big pot on the stove.
Later, outside on the picnic table covered with newspapers, our family had a feast, with laughter and the fun of eating that can only come with hammers and Old Chesapeake Bay Seasoning. Don’t get me wrong, these are some of my fondest memories. I haven’t met a shellfish that doesn’t make me salivate with anticipation. But it’s one of life’s ironies.
I haven’t tasted a crab or any shellfish in more years than I care to remember - I discovered I’m allergic to them….really allergic.
So the memories will have to do.
But there is one other memory of that peaceful setting on the bay that never left me. Have you ever watched crabs in a bucket? They climb, grab, push, crawl, trample - all over each other. Always heading
UP
I don’t know how they know to go UP because on the bottom of the sea they just crawl side to side…. But they go – up. Until the next crab tries and then down they fall and start all over again. Crawling, desperate, crowded — and falling.
Does that sound like your job, your life, your finances? Does it sound like every flashing business opportunity you’ve tried on the Internet or offline? Did you sit with the other crabs in hotel meetings cheering, clapping, jumping in your seats (buckets), hoping against hope you’d somehow land on the stage with that guy getting a $200,000 check from the company’s CEO? Did you go home, have your dreams smashed and fall back to the bottom of the bucket and await the pot on the stove?
IS THIS LIFE? DO YOU REALLY, DEEP
IN YOUR HEART BELIEVE THIS IS
WHAT YOU WERE CREATED FOR?
Are you willing to settle for being a crab in the bucket? Because it really IS your choice.
You can blame, blame, blame - your job, your spouse, your boss, your sponsor, your kids, your dog - take your pick.
But back to the dock on the bay.
I’d join my Dad, talk, see if he caught anything and watch the crabs in the bucket. And, as much as I looked forward to dinner, well — Every now and then, when there were just a few too many crabs in that bucket, one would crawl its way to the rim, over the top and onto the dock. FREEDOM was possible, it was waiting just a few feet away. The crab instinctively knew it. Maybe it looked like a football field who knows? I knew it.
And I’d cheer that crab on as if it were my favorite college football team in a tied game and third down and goal with 3 seconds left on left on the clock in the fourth quarter. If Dad or my uncle saw it, back in the bucket it would go. So I ran interference. I’d distract - talk, point in the other direction, all the while screaming inside GO GO GO – NOW IS YOUR CHANCE! And if the crab rushed and fell off the dock back into safety, life and the joy of BEING a crab -
TOUCHDOWN!
I’d cheer inside with joy as if I were the crab, because really I WAS THE CRAB. WE ALL ARE. But we have more choices than mere luck. We can and MUST say no to being anything but our authentic selves. We can and must find the discipline, push against the obstacles and
GET THE HELL OUT OF THAT BUCKET!
Anything less is the pot on the stove, and it’s a slow, cruel slide into the afterlife. And to borrow a line from Sonny and Cher – “It Ain’t Me, Babe!”
Is that what you are here for? DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT? REALLY? Or did you just give up?
OR, are you one of the crabs that KNOWS, really knows there IS a way out, the waters are waiting, FREEDOM is three feet away…….
If you are, YOU ARE RIGHT!
And no matter if you think you are the only crab who believes that, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
DO YOU WANT TO FEEL WHAT THAT
CRAB FEELS WHEN IT FALLS OFF THE
DOCK AND FIRST TOUCHES THE WATER?
Then BE that crab.
OH BY THE WAY: Dad knew what I was doing; he was cheering along with me.
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