Playing with (Voodoo) Dolls
These little buddies are here to help.
I have discovered an amazing thing: you can use a doll to bring a sense of fun, lightness, and play to anything, even negative situations. Read on…
Back in the day, when my wife Krysta ran a senior center, one of her employees – let’s call him Larry – was just flat-out being a jerk. Larry was cheeky and rude and once even tried to seriously destroy Krysta’s reputation in the community. Larry was clever. He’d misbehave right up to the edge of getting fired, but he was careful enough to never cross the firing line. The situation was really stressful for Krysta and she began dreading going to work.
One day Krysta found a crocheted Amish-style doll (the kind with no face) in a closet at home, and she got an idea. She named the doll Larry, tied its arms into a knot, and shoved the doll into the darkest, furthest corner of the closet.
“You can no longer live in my head. You can no longer harm me,” she told Larry the doll. “The back of the closet is where you’re going to stay from now on! Have a happy life back there, bud!”
It worked! Whenever the real life Larry acted up, Krysta funneled her stress to Larry the doll and diffused it. Creating the doll didn’t change Larry, but it changed Krysta’s response to him. The doll helped her feel she had Larry’s number.
As you’ve probably guessed, when Larry couldn’t get as much of a rise out of Krysta, he didn’t stay at the job much longer, and when real life Larry quit, Larry the doll got moved from the back of the closet to the trash can.
Another type of doll, worry dolls from the native people of Guatemala, have a different purpose. These tiny, handcrafted, and brightly-colored dolls are for helping kids (or you) to sleep. At bedtime you whisper your troubles to a doll, give it a kiss, place it under your pillow, and the doll disappears your troubles overnight.
It’s really fun to use worry dolls, and although I can’t say my troubles were completely gone the next morning, this way of setting aside whatever’s bugging you can sure help you fall asleep. (Worry dolls aren’t hard to find. You can get them in export shops or online, and at the same time support the artisans who make them.)
I was never big on dolls when I was a kid. (I did love to play with plastic trolls and insects and rubber monsters from the quarter vending machines at the grocery store, which probably speaks volumes right there.) Yet recently, at a gift shop in the tiny Arizona mining town of Tortilla Flat, a display of dolls definitely caught my eye.
These “Watchover Voodoo Dolls” were supposed to be personal helpers, made mostly of wound twine, yarn, bits of felt, fabric scraps, some sequins. They had black beady eyes, and looked sort of patchwork and homey. They were cute and palm-size.
(I have to add here that what might first come to mind when you think “voodoo doll,” an effigy to poke pins into and bring harm to someone, is an invention of Hollywood and pop culture. People have used dolls in negative ways down through the centuries, but this practice is not part of the voodoo religion.)
There were dozens of these little dolls in the gift shop, each with its own purpose. “I will help you to stay strong and powerful,” read the tag of a doll that resembled Wonder Woman. Another doll was faceless, had a body crafted of gold twine, and wore a gold jacket. Its tag read, “I will help you achieve and enjoy success in all that you do.”
I just couldn’t leave without a doll, so I chose a basic green twine-wrapped model whose tag read, “I will help you overcome the stress of the working day and enjoy your free time.”
At the register, the store owner told me these little dolls were one of her top-selling items. She was puzzled by their popularity, but I wasn’t. People love things that bring positivity and play into their lives, particularly if those things also have a hint of magic.
So what was I going to do with my doll, you ask? After I bought the doll, I freed it from its packaging, and gave it a good long look. “You’re going to help me get better at play,” I instructed the doll as I snapped it onto the key ring of my scooter.
And here’s where I need to get a little vulnerable.
<deep breath>
The road trip to Tortilla Flat was a birthday trip. It was also the first time I’d be using my new mobility scooter, and I had big issues about that. I felt like riding a scooter was an admission of weakness. It brought up strong feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy. Our society prizes strength and beauty, and the lower you fall on that scale, the less valued it seems you are. Just the idea of a scooter made me feel old, weak, and less-than. (Funny. I’ve never judged anyone on that basis, yet I felt I would be.)
On the other hand, I’ve always been a goer and doer, and without a scooter I was unable to get around much. Life had begun moving past my window without me, so the scooter was a necessity, and I hated that it was.
But while visiting Tortilla Flat, something changed. On that scooter, I was outside, in the sunshine and fresh air, going where I wanted, taking photos, seeing how fast this scooter could go (fast!), and even wandering around shops without slamming into anything. On that scooter, I felt like I owned that town, baby!
Seems it hadn’t taken any time at all that day for my little green doll to start working. (No moss growing under its feet.) As the doll smiled up at me from the scooter keychain, I felt really free for the first time in a long time. I was playing again! It was not just my birthday; it felt like my rebirthday!
And you know what? Nobody cared. Nobody stopped and stared, or pointed and laughed. Instead, I got to see the goodness in people, which is pretty nice in these divided times. People made room for me on the boardwalk and stepped up to open doors. Helping me made them feel good. We’d smile at each other and connect in way that would never have happened if I was afoot.
Now, do I think the voodoo doll was really magical? Maybe. Maybe not. But like the Guatemalan worry dolls or Kysta’s Amish doll Larry, using dolls as helpers is another way for us adults to play. What is the harm in believing you can put your energy and intentions into a doll to help you? What is the harm in allowing that objects can have powers and that sometimes, maybe, magic is real?
Take it from this former plastic bug and rubber monster collector: dolls can be fun and powerful to play with as mascots, talismans, or charms. You can buy them, or make your own (even from paper). Whether you share your worries with them, use them to help ease stress from your life, or just feel affirmed when you see a small smiling face cheering you on, dolls are great little buddies to bring a little more play into your life.
By the way, Krysta has two substacks of her own which you might enjoy!
I may have to get a couple of trolls, one for home and one for my glove compartment while driving.
I especially liked what you said about how you felt others would view a mobility device even though you never looked at them negatively. So glad you had a good experience and now….full speed ahead!
Once again, hit us with some good reminders about what’s important in life.
Awesome account of dolls in our adult lives. Even the simplest form of dolls can be significant. We have a gnome on our shelf just above our computer that makes sure our aura is as positive as it can be.