A Little Bit of Oil (Revisited)

When I was young, I read a science fiction story that made a significant impression on me. The title was, “A Little Bit of Oil,” but despite a quick google search I can’t now locate either the story or its author.

The tale was about mankind’s third round trip mission to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our Sun. The first two missions had never returned. Both disappeared while on track to land back on earth, and Mission Control was still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.

On the third mission the fourth crew member did not fit neatly into any expected category. He was not a pilot or a scientist. His job seemed to be cooking, cleaning, and keeping the other three crew members amused.

After the third flight team successfully landed, it was revealed that the fourth member of their crew was a psychologist, whose job was to provide “a little bit of oil” for the inevitable human friction.  They realized that, encased in a tiny spaceship for ten years, the first two crews had become homicidal and killed each other off. The psychologist, however, was able to keep the third crew from a similar fate, primarily by using humor.

I’ve previously written about how, as a child, this story helped me personally navigate tricky situations. When family vacations went from fun to stressful, I pulled out humor and found it useful. While we often had fun during the day, once my dad needed to find a (cheap) motel, his mood usually turned sour, and he was often upset about something. (He always inspected the room before he paid for it and was often unhappy with its condition). But humor, it seemed, was always a great way to alleviate tension and stress.

One summer, I had the perfect opportunity to test this theory during a “key” moment one afternoon (pun intended).  Dad parked in front of our motel room, then discovered that he had locked his car — with his keys still in the ignition. We carefully retrieved the keys with a wire coat hanger from the room. But throughout the ordeal, I was able to keep everyone happy with a lot of topical humor. A Little Bit of Oil worked then, and it still works today.

And it’s also lots of fun.

Alan