A few summers ago I was visiting Maine and stopped in a small campground office. On the walls of the office were posters with crabs and lobsters on them. Not unusual, except there was a big red circle with the universal slash through it to indicate “No Crabs, No Lobsters.” It being Maine and all, I asked the owner about the posters. He laughed.

“Have you ever seen a bucket of crabs or lobsters?” he asked. “If one of them tries to escape the others will see it and pull him back down into the bucket. No one can escape a bad situation because their peers won’t let them. Jealousy. Pure jealousy,” he laughed. “People are the same way. When someone betters themselves, or gets a little bit ahead, they’ll sabotage them, or gossip about them, or do something to pull them back into the bucket. Around here it’s hard to find good staff. When I get a good staffer, one who is good with the campers and gets more tips, it’s inevitable the *crabs* will crab, gossip and slack off to pull them back down to the lowest level. It ruins things for everyone and makes everyone mediocre and afraid to get ahead or improve. So, I don’t allow any crabbing.”

I was impressed. So I tell this story a lot. Then this week I saw this photo and it occurred to me that it looked like the Panda was HELPING his buddy, giving him a push up, even though there was no way he would be able to climb up alone. Considering that Panda’s are also endangered species, I thought, wow. This is a great counterpoint to the crab story. Are you a “Panda,” helping without thought or possibility for your own gain, or are you a crab, pulling down those around you?