As we continue in the River of Resistance Series, the third obstacle that makes crossing the River of Resistance difficult is our ocean living friend, the crab. (If you remember from my first blog in the series, you have to use your imagination a little to allow for the metaphor to work here, as we know crabs don’t live in rivers.) It’s pretty easy to get yourself a crab dinner while spending some time on the beach. Simply tie a piece of chicken or some other similar bait to the end of a long string or cord. Throw it out in the ocean and wait for the telltale tug. Pull it in slowly, and you probably have one crab hanging on to the chicken; if you are lucky, you might have another one or two hanging on to the other crab. The interesting thing about crabs is that when you put a bunch of them in a shallow bucket that they can easily climb out of, they can’t do it. Why? Because when one is close to getting out of the bucket, his “buddies” pull him back down into the bucket. Human crabs, the kind that seem to want to “pull” us down and away from the goals that we want to achieve are everywhere. They can be people close to us, like parents, clergy, teachers, coaches, friends, etc. Some do it knowingly, while others mean well thinking they are protecting us, but end up being very effective goal-busters. There is a great song by Buddy Jewell that is a perfect rendition of what we could call the “Crab Song”. The first four verses are:
I guess it started when I was a kid,
If you said I couldn’t do it I did,
Always had a stubborn streak,
Put a wall in front of me,
And I’ll find a way to get around it,
There was a friend who said I’d never make the team,
A lot of small town talk said I’d never leave,
Ah and you know who you are,
You all played a part,
In pushing me on to my dream,
I wanna thank everyone who ever told me no,
Pack it up and get back home,
It kept me going knowing I would prove them wrong,
Yea I knew it all along,
Without ‘em I might have given up a long time ago, and so,
I wanna thank everyone who ever told me no.
Played my music for a man behind a desk,
He said sorry what you’ve got I just don’t get,
Ah, but here I am today,
Standin’ on this stage,
And I wonder even now if he gets it yet.
Buddy Jewell is where he is today, a famous country western singer, because he didn’t let the “crabs” pull him down. He actually used their negative thoughts to motivate him to endure and be successful. There are thousands of stories of people who became extraordinarily successful because they overcame the negative attitudes and thoughts of those around them. [Tweet this!] Crabs are a worthy opponent, and it takes a lot of courage and energy to not let their negative chatter keep us from getting “out of the bucket” and on to the life of our dreams.
