Are you fond of this affirmation?
TREATING MYSELF LIKE
A PRECIOUS OBJECT
WILL MAKE ME STRONG
Have you, as directed, drawn it out and hung it on your wall? If so, you may want to quit reading this now. Because I detest it, and I am about to tell you why.
Let me acknowledge that the depth of my dislike is an indication that some unresolved feeling is attached to this; fears of vulnerability and weakness. But even without that, the connotations of this language — precious, object — are cringe-worthy.
I did some free-association writing this morning.
precious: over-valued, sentimental, delicate, breakable, ‘sensitive’, easily damaged, The Princess & The Pea, sweet, ornamental, useless, decorative, costly, over-priced, cute . . .
object: not subject, to objectify, thing, inanimate, mindless, goal, protest . . .
Here are some selections from Thesaurus.com:
precious: affected, alembicated, artful, artificial, chichi, choosy, dainty,
delicate, fastidious, finicky, fragile, fussy, la-di-da, nice,
ostentatious, overnice, overrefined, particular, persnickety, picky,
pretentious, précieux, refined, showy, sophisticated, stagy, studied; apish, artificial, artsy, artsy-craftsy, assumed, awkward, campy,
chichi, conceited, contrived, counterfeit, counterfeited, faked, false,
feigned, fraud, ham, hammy, highfalutin, hollow, imitated, insincere,
melodramatic, ostentatious, overdone, pedantic, phoney, phony,
playacting, pompous, pretended, pretentious, put-on, schmaltzy, self-conscious, shallow,
sham, shammed, simulated, spurious, stiff, stilted, studied,
superficial, theatrical, unnatural . . .
Now, granted that definitions include:
pre·cious
adj.
- Of high cost or worth; valuable.
- Highly esteemed; cherished.
- Dear; beloved.
- Affectedly dainty or overrefined: precious mannerisms.
- Informal. Thoroughgoing; unmitigated: a precious mess.
You can see, I think, why I cringe. Then we have object:
Main Entry: object
Part of Speech: noun 1
Definition: thing
Synonyms: article, body, bulk, commodity, dealie-bob, dohickey, doodad, entity, fact, gadget, gimmick, gizmo, item, jobby, mass, matter, phenomenon, reality, something, substance, thing, volume, whatchamacallit, widget
I am not a precious object.
My mother, when I was small and beautiful, treated me like a doll. She dressed me up in pretty clothes. Every time I got them dirty, she changed them. Beautiful dolls are precious objects. Dolls do not feel. If a doll breaks inside, where no one can see, that is not a problem. It is only what shows, what mars or scars the surface, that matters. Dolls do not feel pain.
I am not a doll. I am not an object, precious or otherwise. I am a living, feeling, human animal; and in that is all my particular, unique, and universal value.
LIVING FROM MY CENTER MAKES ME STRONG
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