The other day I heard a really great interpretation of this traditional nursery rhyme called “There’s A Hole In My Bucket” sung as a duet with sweetness and panache by Harry Belafonte and Odetta.
“The song is about Henry, who needs a whetstone to sharpen his ax but can't get water to wet it because his bucket has a hole in it. The song ends in a stalemate, but the bucket can be fixed.”
As Henry is tasked with fetching some water, each step of the way is hit with roadblock after roadblock, but Dear Liza (Odetta) comes up with a solid solution every time, which creates cute a back and forth dialogue between the two. Each ensuing solution ends up not working so well for Henry, and he keeps finding excuses as to why he can’t sharpen his axe or fetch the water. Without Liza encouraging him or coming up with solutions, Henry would have given up.
What I gleaned from this song may solely come from my current frame of mind, but I ruminated on the difference between excuses and reality, or if there even was one. In the song, each roadblock gives Henry an incentive to not do the thing he's supposed to accomplish, but is Henry lazy? Or is it that he can’t take the disappointment and the setbacks anymore, so he just wants to stop? His reality is this constant setback, so when he tells Liza that his axe isn’t sharp, is he making excuses or is he accepting reality? There is no answer of course, but a hole in a bucket is a hole in a bucket, right? Perhaps this is a flimsy premise, especially considering how playful the exchange is in the song, but it got me thinking about how when reality and making excuses intersect, it can make any forward progress seem out of reach. Really what I am saying is that I, like many, feel like Henry at the moment, in a constant loop of setbacks with a bottomless bucket.
Every conversation I have with someone about how dire things are job-wise out there, I find myself being hit with the same questions about trying this or that or hitting up this person or this website and each answer is always a “Yep. I’ve done that too!” Inevitably, though, a “but” comes into play, like “I tried that, BUT it’s not good pay” or “I did, BUT the interviewer seemed like a jerk.”
These are realities AND excuses. Yes, I could take the pay cut or I could give the jerk a chance, but then worry that it could put me in another precarious situation. Having been very lucky the last 15 years to be gainfully employed in the entertainment industry, these idiosyncratic aspects of job hunting have been out of sight, out of mind for me. I know from earlier experience that these are the trials and tribulations everyone deals with in a job hunt, so being in this position now is both humbling and gives me great empathy for those who deal with this daily still.
We as entertainment workers have been told by the media and people above since January to “Wait until March and everything should be fine!” and then it became “Let's wait until June…or July.” Now the slogan, which really irks me, is “Survive till ‘25!” I’m sorry, but how in the hell are all of these thousands of people in this business, going to survive a full year without work, especially in Los Angeles? The reality is a lot of them left and are leaving or completely changing career paths like myself.
What I’m trying to say is that there is a perception that people who can’t get work are lazy, or don’t know what they’re doing, or don’t have the drive, or that they’re just making excuses. That’s far from it. The reality of our job market, from my purview, is that no one is making excuses, it’s just there isn’t as much work out there. It seems to me the reality and the excuses have hit each other head on and now jobs mostly come from blind luck, or being at the right place at the right time. However, one incredibly important aspect seems to be glossed over in our automated, computer driven society and that’s human connection.
An episode of The Bear this season exemplified this perfectly. In this pitch perfect flashback episode, we follow the character Tina as she desperately hunts for a job to keep her family afloat. While taking a break from job hunting to have a sandwich, she has a lovely human conversation with the owner of the shop, Michael, who offers her a job, sight unseen. Yes, I know it’s fictitious TV, but the way the episode conveyed the real life struggle that “optics” plays during a job search was as real as any documentary. As we follow her on her hunt, we see that what is on her resume supersedes her as a human being, in that she is a statistic, a check box on a grid, or specifically an unemployed brown woman in her 40’s. Michael, in their candid conversation, saw Tina as a loving, but flawed human in search of a job so she could support her son. He saw humility and heart. He saw she had a story to tell and wasn’t just a fact sheet (ie; woman over 40) which is how the other people from the other jobs perceived her. This connection with another human saved her.
As we all keep looking for work, let’s keep in mind we all have a story to tell. Our stories may include excuses or roadblocks and perhaps holes in buckets, but nonetheless, we all have a story to tell. The story we do tell must include every beautiful and ugly part about us and why we ended up where we did or where we want to go and why. Money aside, our jobs should function as an anchor, a routine and a purpose so aligning with all of these things is important to share. Most of all, we must share it with another person. Connection is all we have left and again, our automated, digital world is making human connection scarce, and unfortunately, scary for many. If we’re not divided politically, we’re divided by our screens. If the person listening, or let's face it, Zooming on the other line doesn’t see the human in you, that’s their fault.
As shitty as things are and can be, I think if we follow with our hearts and connect with one another things will inevitably work out and jobs or dreams or goals will come to fruition. Besides, if Henry didn’t have Dear Liza to pick him up, he’d be up shits creek.
Thanks for reading. I have been a bit scattershot the last couple of months, but it’s nice to put these thoughts down for you all to read. Hopefully you find solace in some of this. If you have an experience to share, I’d love to hear it.
Talk next week?
This really resonates. I know that perception is not reality and vice versa so why do I need daily reminders?
Agreed. We allow a perceived judgement to carry us and not honest action. I think? Haha