Slowly Sinking

You're in a special boat that delivers food to islanders in a small section of the Pacific Ocean. The special boat has a small hole in the hull. The islanders won't accept food from a boat without this hole. The hole represents a continuing connection between the water in the ocean and the food on the boat. It appeases their gods.

Water is seeping in.

You have a bucket to bail out the water. The problem is the bucket is too small. There is a net increase of water in the boat. 

You call out for support. There should be support. It is a person's designated role, the Bucketer, to provide a bucket big enough so the net rate is outflow. 

You request the bigger bucket. They ignore you.

You request again, several times, consistantly, over a year. They ignore you.

You search amongst the material on the boat and find some metal. You hand it to the Bucketer. Perhaps with the additional resource they can finish the bucket. They take the material but, again, hand over nothing.

Your arms are getting tired now. You've missed some opportunities to perform special works with your boat, because your time has been taken up fiercely trying to minimise the amount of water.

Then the Bucketer starts to criticise you for missing opportunities. You find that odd. You explain that only if you had a big enough bucket, which they are supposed to provide, you wouldn't be in this mess. They ignore you.

Now the boat is sitting deep in the water. One fierce wave could knock it out.

You appeal to the Boat Owner. The Boat Owner chats with the Bucketer, and returns with the knowledge that a bucket storage identification system is being developed. That just sounds fine, but not something that will help right now. 

You take a long voyage to go and see the Bucketer yourself. You chat through the problem. They nod their head, then don't take your phone calls, then miss your meetings, and most importantly don't deliver you with a big enough bucket.

Your feet are constantly wet now.

You write a letter stating that you need a large bucket as soon as possible, work needs to start now.

You get a response. The response is negative. The Bucketer doesn't believe you need a bucket.

You're flabbergasted. Your boat continues to sink. Your knees are now wet. Your arms are tired from bailing. You've missed more opportunities to feed islanders.

The Boat Owner is upset that you've written such a strongly worded letter. He's concerned that you're not on the moral high ground. You question what that really means. You're not on any ground at the moment, you're just sinking.

Could you have not planned better? You wish you had. However what is the purpose of the Bucketer if not for these situations? If everyone had a big enough bucket then a Bucketer wouldn't be needed.

The water is up to your waist.

Your crew starts asking what is going on. You've been assuring them for over a year that you'll be sourcing a bigger bucket. They complained about all this previously, but when you came onboard you could not fathom that the Bucketer would not actually issue a bucket. This was not your experience elsewhere.

The Boat Owner agrees that the current situation is nonsense. He writes a letter. A month later - still no bucket.

You listen to a briefing by the Admiral who talks about the values of the organisation. He mentions words such as 'accountability', 'teamwork' and 'integrity'. You reflect on these words as the water rises up to your chest.

You look at your options. There is one thing that is in your control to stop sinking. It involves utilising the crew to start bailing with their hands. More islands will be missed though. More people will go hungry.

You know this isn't a long term solution. You also know that the Bucketer isn't just the Bucketer, he oversees other aspects of resourcing for the seas. You shudder to think what support you'd get if there was a malfunction on the boat, or some other problem.

Even if you were now to receive a big bucket, you'd wonder about the past year and what took so long. What faith would you have moving forward to be supplied in a timely manner if, say, the islander gods wanted supply of a green sail or a black mast.

You like the boat, you like the crew, you like feeding starving islanders. You don't like this though. 

How disappointing is it that you can't get a big enough bucket.