The Toy
Some time ago I had a dream. In that dream I was
visiting a planet. It was
a very strange planet. It was a planet inhabited by toys and I was one of
those toys. These toys played all the time. But this isn't what made this
planet so strange. The strangest thing about this planet of toys is that most of
them didn't know they were toys. It was so strange because it was so
obvious that they really were toys.
I looked around and began to just observe the toys. It was amazing what
they pretended to be. They almost always pretended to be very serious.
When they were serious they weren't very happy. It didn't make sense to me why a
toy, that could be anything would pretend a role that wasn't much fun. I was
very confused. I studied some more.
I began to see one of the biggest games of the toys. I don't know what
they called it, but I called it, "I'm right and you're wrong." They
played it very seriously. Some even played it to their death. Some toys would
pretend to play the game as lawyers or teachers. Some toys played the game as
parents. I think this is where the younger toys learned the game. It's hard to tell
because the toys played it almost all the time. Funny thing about the game
is that it wasn't fun and yet they played it so often.
Now there were some toys that played like real toys. Most of them were
about 2 to 6 years old. They knew how to be what they were. They would play as a
toy cop or robber and have fun. Then in a moment they would play as a
cowboy or a fireman. In a moment they would switch roles and be something else.
These were really master toys of playing all the time. They didn't care
what anyone thought of them. I noticed though, that as the toys got older they would start to play only one role.
I studied them some more. It seemed the toys would practice that one role
as they got older until they were a master at just that one role. It was like
they forgot how to be anything else. And they would take their role very
seriously. These toys were very believable characters. If it
wasn't so
obvious to me that they were toys, I probably would have started believing
them. It was funny watching these toys play these very serious games.
But after a while I was tired of the "right wrong game", the
judgment game, the jealousy game, all those high drama games. Most the game I saw
them play were no fun.
What is stranger is that I am still dreaming that dream. I see the world
filled with people that could be having such fun playing at life. Instead
they fill their life with serious drama and games that nobody wins. I
can't
wait for all those wonderful toys to wake up from their characters and dream a better game of life.