Crabs In The Bucket

Did you know there’s no need to put a lid on a bucket of crabs?

If one crab grips the lip of the bucket, about to pull itself out, the others will pull it back in.

Humans do the same thing.

“Who do you think you are?

“If I can’t have that, neither can you.”

“What a lot of gall!”

“I know more than her.”

“How’d he get that?”

A worm of envy often wriggles into hearts and forces people to smile deceitfully through a wave of jealousy.

Or, a negative event happens to a well-liked person and the word “deserves” wafts through a mind waiting for gory details.

What about those denigrating “yah buts” thrown against the character of someone who is being praised by another?

My eyes were opened during a heartbreaking example that occurred in a small community while I was fulfilling a contract.   My role necessitated hearing about incest in the community.

My colleagues who had been there for a number of years had ceaselessly worked towards quietly planting as much preventive awareness as possible.

One day, I hit a frustration point, “I realize nothing will change until this community itself decides this is not acceptable.  But what’s prevented them from taking action?”

The man who’d been there longest said, “It’s the ‘crabs in the bucket’ phenomenon.”

He explained, “We do everything to make sure that kids progress through to post-secondary education.  Some who graduate from University come back to the community committed to speaking up and doing something about the incest.  They are subjected to threats and violence until they are pulled back into the silent bottom of the bucket.  Either that or they have to leave.”

Coincidentally, only days later, I heard a woman from this same area being interviewed on a national radio program.   This woman had been a “crab” with more than one leg out of the bucket.  After being forced to leave, she mustered enough courage to blow the whistle.  The radio interview meant she signed away her family and culture – perhaps forever.

If that interview created any life-changing effect, we “outsiders” were not privy to details.

To varying degrees, humanity does the same to others wanting to grasp and hold firm to the top of that battered bastion of benign being.  How often have talented people, willing to share sorely needed gifts, smelled the freshness of freedom while the tug of “how dare you” pulls them down with resentment?

Over the past three years, I have lived outside the bucket.  Three years ago today, I hit the “publish” button the first time as “Soul Dipper”.  I felt stripped bare, exposed to unknown elements.   What was I going to find, I wondered.  I teetered on the lip of a container that no longer fit.  It was too silent.

Any writer knows the relentless drive to speak one’s truth.

I jumped out of a musty metal soul satchel with great trepidation and found YOU!

I discovered readers giving support, encouragement, positive responses.  You turned into a new family while I felt my way through the first year, figuring out where I fit.  My learning curve was huge and you patiently stayed.

The second year my courage grew with the steady growth in readership and subscriptions. I became more determined to offer a level of quality that I sense the readership is seeking.

Throughout, I actively sought and studied various gifted, talented, outrageous and authentic people. Their paths encouraged me to continue opening my soul and sharing the messages.

This third year, though seemingly lighter, has been more experimental.

The whole time, readership and subscriptions have continuously grown.  The bucket has stayed at the bottom of the well.

Thank you for your feedback; especially those who came to me through email.  Your encouragement and gentle nudging is helpful and hugely appreciated.

For the fourth year, I hope you continue to hang around Soul Dipper.  Please remember the key to getting out of any bucket is knowing yourself and having the courage of your convictions to share you. Each of us contain an inner Mt. Everest.  Everyone has a world inside waiting for exploration.  All of us have unending discoveries that may at first frighten.  If you haven’t yet, kick free of those crablike grasps and jump!  Dust yourself off.  You’ll be amazed by your beauty.

When we finally see our own beauty, we need NEVER to resort to being “Crabs In A Bucket”.  We’ll be the ones shouting, “Jump!”

I love your support, your curiosity, and your willingness to explore your inner self.

Thank you for three years of tears and laughter.  Let’s get on with mining miracles.

Without buckets!

Soul Dipper turns three today.  I’m never going to blow out these candles!

Hey, k-os, give us some Crabbuckit!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSzpKiARrI)

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