Played With

Metaphorical Narrative

There is a person who keeps finding ways to be played with.
One day a yoyo, bouncing on cue. Another day a puppet, strings pulled tight. Another, a fragile doll, cracking open in just the right places to look pitiable.

Each collapse looks like vulnerability, but it isn’t. It’s theatre: a survival act rehearsed so long it feels natural. The show wins glances, pity, momentary strokes of attention — but never real belonging. Because toys are not loved for who they are. Toys are used until the game is over.

And the cruelest part? The toy-making is voluntary. The person invents new performances, new disguises, new ways to be handled, as if any play were better than the silence of being unseen.

Core Insight

False vulnerability is not freedom — it is self-toying. It is inventing roles that let others pull the strings while silencing the true self. Survival once made it necessary. But now it keeps the real voice locked away.

Saturday Experiment

1. Notice when you feel yourself offering collapse as a way to be seen.
2. Ask: Am I being a toy right now? Am I inventing a way to be played with?
3. Choose stillness instead. Let the toy drop. Feel the weight of not performing.

Sunday Reflection

• In what ways have I turned myself into toys for others’ attention?
• How has false connection stolen space from true belonging?
• If I stopped inventing new toy-roles, what form of self would finally emerge?