Protection
I am just a baby in your arms. I am fragile, brittle and vulnerable. You see I was broken when I was so, so young. I did not know any different and all I wanted was to be told that I was good. I did everything I could to please them but it was never deemed enough. I don’t know why I could not make them love me but it just did not happen. Perhaps if I had tried harder. I know it is my fault really but I did not know any better. They took something from me, I still do not know what it really is, but I think you do. I think you hold the answer because of who you are. I try to be a good person, I really do but there is just something that stops me from being that decent and compassionate person. I see what you and people like you do and I cannot help but wish I was the same. Sometimes I want it so much it makes me do things I should not do because I cannot control the jealousy that rises and makes me do those Bad Things. Believe me, I fight against it but I have not had the strength to defeat the wickedness but I have you now don’t I? You will shield me and give me the fortitude I require to complete my journey to redemption. Everything that has happened before was borne out of me lacking you. Those things that I have done, well, I am not proud of them but I was weak and knew no better. I did not have you to lead and guide me. The others, you see, those others promised me that they would take care of me but they were just pretenders and charlatans who took from me and left me twisted and beaten in the dust. Sometimes I had to fight back. That was when I struck out at them. I did not want to, truly I did not want to do those things, but sometimes I was given no choice. I know all that has gone now because you are here. You are the person I have waited for for so long. I believe in you and how you can save me. You are my caretaker, my salvation and my rock. I look to you and you give me such hope. You show me that there is a better way, a road that leads to salvation. It is a road that will take me away from the Badlands and the darkness. I understand the road may be long, it may wind through difficult places but ultimately, with you holding my hand, I know that I will reach that place where I need not be afraid any longer. I need not hurt and lash out but instead I can harness the real goodness that is somewhere deep inside me.
You told me that it is there and I believe you. You know about these things. That is the way you have been made. You are the carer, the healer and the peacemaker. You must understand why it is that you are so special to me. You are the only one who truly understands what is to be me and you are the only one who can save me. I will place my heart in your hands and let you care for it. I have been broken, I have been broken for far too long, a shattered and fractured creature who has had to endure living this way without any hope of redemption, until you came along. Please, make me a better person. Please care for me and nurse me and hold my hand when the demons come. I look to you and only you and in those optimistic eyes of yours I find absolution.
All I want is to be loved. It is not too much to ask is it. I am a noble yet broken person and you hold the power to make me what I want to be, what I should be. I am like a baby in your arms. I am vulnerable yet with you there anything becomes possible. I know you will love me, care for me and protect me. You will save me. You are the only one.
You fall for this speech.
Every time.
8 thoughts on “Protection”
Vent Your Spleen! (Please see the Rules in Formal Info)
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Ohh this would be so effective on me. I’ve never experienced this. But you know what I did? I’d pretend the LMR was my baby, and he liked it. It felt like the right thing to do.
No, you’re not “just a baby” in someone else’s arms.
You are an adult. You live in the same world as anyone else. You have had cumulative experiences in life like any other adult and also the time and scope to reflect on those experiences just like ANY OTHER ADULT.
This article pulls at the heartstrings and anyone who has instinctive compassion or empathy is at risk of looking at the baby in the photo and reading the sympathy-inducing words and starting to feel protective and even considering the need to help if possible.
An honest person *believes* simply because it is their instinct to be honest themselves.
But the evidence is hiding in plain sight. If the person saying this is an adult, they are NOT a baby.
Also, does the person live in a decent house? Do they drive a car? Do they have a job? Do they have more or less than you do? Are they capable of having an adult conversation? Are they clean and adequately dressed? Is this person your parent which means that you are in fact *their* child?
If the answer to any of those questions is ‘yes’, you need to ask ‘why do they want my sympathy?’ and ‘why do they need to appear so helpless?’ and ‘why should they have my compassion?’.
Asking these questions is not cynicism or meanness. It’s a form of unemotional logic and mindfulness.
This article makes me feel irritation, even anger. I am aware of this emotion rising though and I can control it. I am irritated because this kind of “feel sorry for me” speech was used on me lots of times by my mother. It wasn’t as obvious as this article. She never described herself as a baby or as a broken person who needed love and protection. She was more covert and underhanded than that. She manipulated, guilt-tripped and played on people’s emotions constantly in order to induce sympathy and used her early life experiences for decades to remind her children just how hard her life was and how much she needed compassion.
Meanwhile, she didn’t think twice about using everyone around her to make her own life easier. The residual benefits flowed in her direction. The people who *really* needed compassion and protection received her contempt and coldness.
Powerful post, WiserNow. It certainly demonstrates that you live up to your handle.
I appreciate your clarity of thought.
Thank you Lisk, that’s very kind of you.
Calling BS….
Truth be told, this is almost the exact script I was told by my narcissist and yes I fell for it more then once Like I always say Mr.H knowledge is power!
It is when I read an article like this one that I doubt I am an empath as I would feel no connection to these words or responsibility for supporting this person in an intimate partner relationship.
No, not falling for it. Go tell someone who believes you.