A Person and their Bucket

You are standing in a bucket.

You're not entirely sure why you're standing in this bucket, how it got there or how you got there, and in fact the whole situation is rather confusing.

The only thing you can really be sure of is that you're sinking.

You appear to be unable to calculate your rate of decent, and so you have no idea how long it'll be before you're completely in the bucket.

On top of that, no matter how hard you try, you don't seem to be able to get out of the bucket.

At this point a person, also in a bucket, comes along, "Excuse me," they say, "But it looks like you're standing in a bucket."

You are rather unimpressed by this remark.

The person explains that all people are stuck in buckets, that all buckets are filled with acid and that eventually all people will be a little hydrolysed mush at the bottom of their bucket, but that this is no problem, you can enjoy learning about yourself, your bucket and the ever consuming acid while you wait for this inevitability. The idea for some reason seems quite appealing. After all, it would explain the strange tingling feeling that you have in your legs, and it'll give you something to do instead of worrying about your sinking.

Just as you're beginning to enjoy yourself with a game of bucket tennis, another person comes along.

This person proceeds to explain that they have a better way of doing things. If you clean the outside of your bucket five times a day, and treat other people in buckets nicely, give to those who have more acid in their bucket than you, practice imagining yourself outside of the bucket, and everything else in their book of "One Hundred and One Ways to Have a Better Bucket", life itself will be much nicer for you. You're rather unsure about this option, it seems appealing, but also like a lot of effort. And at the end of the day, you'll still be mush in a bucket, so it's probably not worth the commitment (although you might dabble in it now and again).

A few more people come along, all stuck in their own buckets, and all of them basically saying the same stuff in different ways. Well by this point you've quite had enough of these different people telling you different things about your bucket, after all it's YOUR bucket, not theirs and what right do they have to tell you how to spend your OWN time in your OWN bucket? Unfortunately one more person seems to be on their way. They are rather unimpressive; they appear to have sunk quite low in their bucket, plus their bucket is absolutely filthy. How can someone like this give advice on how to spend your time in your bucket? For that is surely what they're about to try and do.

"Listen, I know a way to fix this bucket situation," they begin, "but it's going to sound crazy and I don't quite know how to explain it or where to begin. Basically, there is a way of being free both of your bucket, and of the acid in it. There is a person who doesn't live in a bucket, he's free to go where he likes, he's found a way of taking the mush that you'll turn into, and remaking you outside of your bucket so that you'll be free forever. I don't get exactly how any of it works, and I've never met the person face to face, but the only thing that we have to do, is admit that we need his help, and ask him to help us out."

"Great," you think, "This person is the loopiest yet." You state your case against what they've said, trying to be as nice as possible, "Look, you seem lovely and I'm happy that you can live with such hope, but what you're saying is really quite ridiculous. Firstly you're asking me believe in a person who doesn't live inside a bucket. I have never met anyone who doesn't live inside a bucket, the idea of someone living outside of a bucket is childish, if it were possible, I would've seen such a person. And that's a point, you yourself admit you've never seen this person! Now let us assume, for argument's sake, that such a person could exist (after all, just because you haven't seen something, it doesn't mean it can't be theoretically possible), you're telling me that they have a way to turn mush back into a complex and living organism, such a thing is impossible. But let us assume that even that is theoretically possible, and note we're getting quite absurd in our assumptions by this point, we face the issue of why such a person would wait until we are already mush in order to release us from our state of bucket imprisonment. Such a person is obviously sadistic, who would want someone to have to suffer and turn to mush before helping them out, if they have the power to help them in the first place. No, I would not want to be saved by such a person, even if they did exist. And even if you could answer all these things, you clearly are not someone who is a shining example of how to live, why would I even wish to believe the same thing as you?"

Their response is short and seems rather unsubstantial, "I can't give you answers to every question you have, don't you think that I have questions of my own? I don't understand how this works, but I do understand that if there is a way to be free of my bucket, I want to take it. And I understand that if the evidence I've seen about this person is true, they are someone I would like to help me. I'm not asking you to believe what I say, I'm asking you to just give it a shot. And I'm aware that I'm no shining example, like you say, but that's not the point, I don't claim to be the solution to your problems, it's the one I'm telling you about who is. Surely this is better than simply becoming mush?"

This person seems hopeless, they are unwilling to listen to your logic, to see reason. Surely it is better to accept that you're just going to be mush than to waste your time arguing with someone about a fairytale they've taken too seriously? You suggest playing Call of Duty Zombies instead of continuing a seemingly pointless argument. (Yeah, alright, I stuck the zombie bit in just so I could include this picture... I call it 'Plant Pot Warfare'...)

 

I'm not entirely sure what the main point of this post is, and please don't be offended by anything it says. Feel free to discuss it or ignore it, whatever you want. It just came to mind earlier today, and this blog is a space for posting about what's going on with us, and this stuff is important to me. Finally the, "than to waste your time arguing" bit, is not a reflection on my opinion of discussing stuff, in fact most of this post doesn't, at least on the surface, reflect my thoughts. (Actually the whole thing started off with me drawing a stickman, realising I wasn't happy with the legs, sticking a bucket in the way to cover them up and then letting things escalate from there.)

Happy blogging, peeps! And start posting again!!! I miss your posts.

Matt

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