High Strung

Do we let the people we love control us? And if so, is that real love? 

In ballet, there are five starting positions with different leg and arm poses. The ballerina dancers are in positions 1, 4, and 3. 143 is the numeric code for “I love you”. 

Because they are also marionette dolls, it is implied that someone is controlling them. They are manipulated to spell out “I love you”.

I wanted to explore the theme of someone controlling you to love them. The type of people who try to convince you to love them, to see what they want you to see, so you love them.

Puppets are easily manipulated, and some people are easily manipulated as well, even if they don’t realize it. Sometimes we can be easily manipulated, especially when we love someone, or at least think we do.  

So often we give the people we love control over us, whether that’s good or bad control. And sometimes the wrong people can abuse this power. 

A while ago, somebody said they had power over me. I questioned this and thought about it for a long time, and I wondered if that was true or not. People only have power over us if we allow them to do so. At some point, there was a time when this specific person did have power over me. I cared about what they thought, overanalyzed the words they said, and misinterpreted their actions. Tailored myself to please them, twisted myself into a smaller box to make them feel more comfortable, etc. 

But one day, that statement wasn’t true anymore. They didn’t have power over me anymore. I stopped caring what they thought, stopped wondering what they were doing and with whom, etc. And it felt like I had cut the marionette strings off. 

We all want to be seen, want to be loved and cared for. But at what cost? To give up our own control of our lives? To lose ourselves in someone else? 

"I've got no strings

To hold me down

To make me fret

Or make me frown
I had strings

But now I'm free

There are no strings on me"

- I've Got No String from Pinocchio, 1940