How would you treat a teddy bear? This is something I often wonder when I think about my stuffed animals and how others would react to them. Beyond that, I see it applying to many other areas of life for many living beings. Here’s my take on this.
I was inspired to write about this yesterday morning. On the drive to work, I saw a Hello Kitty stuffed animal sitting on top of a trash can on trash pickup day. I stopped, put her in the backseat, and carried on with my day. After work, I spent some time giving her a bath/shower with laundry detergent in the bathtub. Giving her a day to dry showed that most of the dirt is gone, though I’d still like to wash her some more. I’m glad she looks much cleaner now than when I first saw her.
This wasn’t the first time I’d rescued a stuffed animal from being thrown out like a piece of trash. In fact, I’ve done this on at least five other occasions, though this is the most amount of work I’ve had to put into cleaning a rescued stuffed animal. I don’t get the mindset of those who throw away stuffed animals, especially ones that are still clean and in great shape. Why not give them to friends or family members who might enjoy them, send them to organizations that find homes for unwanted teddies, or at least donate them to a thrift store? Any of those would be better options than being left to rot in a landfill or getting burned up.
I’m sure that at least some of my approach, feelings, and thoughts around this were created from the Toy Story movies. I grew up with the first two and saw the third within a few years of its release. The idea of living toys has been with me since I was only a few years old, and it has undoubtedly shaped my entire perspective on this. When I see toys that have been thrown away, it makes me think of a scene toward the end of Toy Story 3 when it looks like the toys we’ve grown to love throughout the series are about to die. I hate to think of that happening to any toy, especially a cute stuffed animal. Whether or not they actually have feelings, it still feels mean to treat them badly.
My concerns here go beyond toys. My suspicion is that those who treat stuffed animals with cruelty tend to treat other things as well as beings in general that way. It’s rare to find someone who acts with kindness in all areas of life except for one area in which there is great meanness. Love and hatred both tend to bleed over into all aspects of life; whichever one becomes dominant depends on which gets used the most. Those who abuse animals also often abuse humans, for example. I believe that those who abuse stuffed animals find it easier to abuse living beings as they are used to acting cruelly, even if only to inanimate objects at first. The more lifelike the stuffed animals they abuse, the easier they’d find it to abuse real animals, and so on.
Even with living beings, there are plenty of folks who abuse them. Lots of folks hate small dogs, for instance, and at least verbally abuse them while also talking or “joking” about physically hurting them. Some go so far as to actually physically abuse or even kill them. For these sickos, it seems that the smaller, cuter, and more defenseless the animal, the bigger the kick they get out of hurting those poor critters. I’m glad my dog Sawyer never had to interact with anyone who would do that to him, any other small dogs, or any other animals in general of whatever size. I feel devastated for those animals who do have the misfortune of meeting such cruel excuses for humans.
I see this also applying to humans abusing other humans. The bully at my job aims most of his verbal abuse toward those younger and physically weaker than him. Although he has backed off of me almost entirely since I put him in his place late last year, I can’t help but think that my being a bit shorter than him, about half his weight, and physically far weaker than he is made me an especially appealing target for him, in addition to my emotional issues and hypersensitivity to cruelty. The notion that bullies are mostly cowards who pick on those they believe won’t be able to effectively push back seems ever more plausible to me, especially in this case where the bully in question is a 52-year-old pastor picking on a small guy in his early 30s.
Building off of the previous paragraph, I do sometimes think other humans see me as they would a teddy bear. As a result, some treat me well and see me as either needing or deserving extra special care. Others, however, see it as an opportunity to push me around, get whatever they want from me, and abuse me in any way they like. This has mostly been done by those who were older than me, and almost always by those who are stronger than me. As you probably guessed, I much prefer to be around those who treat me, stuffed animals, and real animals well. This is one of the reasons I love character interactions at Disney World so much. The characters have always treated me well and interacting with them has often been the highlight of my trips. Whenever I’ve shown them some of my stuffed friends, they’ve also treated them with kindness, gentleness, and love. Even other non-character Disney cast members have shown appreciation for my stuffed friends. That always makes my heart soar and puts a smile on my face. I’ll take those kinds of interactions with nice folks over bad interactions with bullies any day.
Whatever your answer to the central question in this post, it likely informs how you’d also treat animals and humans, especially smaller, weaker ones than you. It is also likely enough to let me know whether or not I’d want to interact with you if our paths ever crossed. So, with all of this in mind, how would you treat a teddy bear?