Indispensable

When I retired from the Grand Trunk Western Railroad one of my fellow workers asked me who would be filling my vacancy.

I told him I didn’t leave any. I figured I had done my job. Here’s a poem that’s a favorite of mine.

The Indispensable Man
Saxon White Kessinger

Sometime when you’re feeling important
Sometime when you ego’s in bloom
Sometime when you get that idea

You’re the best qualified in the room.
Sometime when you feel that your leaving
Would fill an unfillable hole

Just follow this simple direction
And see how it humbles your soul.

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

You can make all the waves that you want to
You can stir up that water galore
But you’ll find that the hole that’s remaining
Is exactly 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.