Being a Toy in the Game of Life
When you become wise you become free again like a child.
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.