Monday, September 27, 2021

How to Build Yourself: Prologue – Looking for the Instruction Manuel


Prologue – Looking for the Instruction Manuel

Who am I? I know for sure that my name is Renata, that my family and friends love me, and that I’m good at designing and making tools for dolls like myself, but what is my true purpose in life beyond this? What is the meaning in every action I make? What is the end goal? What is the purpose of it all if someone is going to take my place after I am gone?

When I asked my parents about it, they told me about the Doll Factory Creator and the instructions he gave for all dolls to follow. My parents say they follow the rules, but I don’t even have the legs that the doll manual says that I was meant to have. Very few follow the rules and even fewer know what the rules exactly are or even care what they are. I’m designed just like all the other young dolls with an arm made of gears to keep the machines in the factory moving and a strong metal arm to carry heavy objects and cut materials. I guess I don’t need legs because I can walk on my two arms like the others, but I can also climb walls and ceilings since my arm can cut into the wall and my gears are as sharp as a saw blade that can also cut into things. Many gears run throughout the factory that I can put my gear arm into for easy transport.

These tools don’t feel natural to me although I need these every day. I look to my parents for inspiration for what I should do and find little direction that feels satisfying. My father is an innovator and toolmaker. He’s always looking forward to the good future that his tools could create and how easier our lives can be with them. I look up to him for his work ethic, but I wish he would be home more and wouldn’t work himself to sickness every now and then.

My mother, on the other hand, sees goodness, truth, and purpose in everything. It’s why she put so many eyes on her face, so she can see it all. She’s content in making dresses, tuxedos, and other fancy clothes for dolls. People say that I have her hair and her capacity to see good in everything while they also say that I have my father’s eyes, smile, and forward thinking attitude. I’m going to combine these attitudes to search the factory for my true purpose and I’m going to look for it everywhere I can. After getting my parent’s permission to take off for a week, I begin my search. Starting with my hometown, I see many in this town built within this factory who are content with doing the same things daily and carrying the same general traditions as their parents.

I put my gear arm into the gears above and ride the path to get to a vantage point near a window that will give me a view of the entire area. These windows are a curious thing. It’s either too bright or dark outside to see. The windows can’t be broken and there’s no record of a door that leads outside. This leads many to believe that the outside world where the Doll Creator is said to go is nonexistent or unreachable by normal means. Nobody has seen the Creator and the only hint of his appearance is our own since it is said that we are made in his image and his love. How can a Creator love his creation if he’s seemingly never around? His existence could be self-evident because of the factory’s creation, how it works, and everything in it or it could be explained by so-called natural phenomena though I’m not sure how that could be possible given that nature follows rules like how a child implies the existence of their parent, so I believe in his existence.

Though I may have to speak to people who don’t believe, I will find the truth behind the factory and myself. I take one last look at my home, the churches, schools, the bustling marketplace where people buy doll parts to fit their lifestyle more than food and water, and the traffic of dolls that live the lives they choose to accept. For now, the life of looking for my purpose is the one I choose to walk. Maybe I’m wasting my time and I’m just meant to be what my parents say, but I know there’s more. Even if I have to change my entire lifestyle, everything I believe, and the way I look, I will find the answers to how I should live.

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