ABSTRACT
Pulling strings, in a manner of speaking will give us leave to imagine how we might learn to live with defeat. Needless to say, this will not involve embracing an -ism – least of all defeatism. This chapter suggests that if people open themselves to the full range of its possibilities, then a puppet can give us valuable lessons, not just in observing and in looking on, but also in becoming aware. It argues that not only can gravity and grace be accomplished even in conditions of constraint, but also, somewhat paradoxically, that these very constraints may offer the condition for an unexpected form of human flourishing. The chapter also suggests that re-envisioning mechanisms of constraint are the key to attaining a state of freedom that is 'not simply a relationship between human beings 'a state of the soul in which conflict has been left behind'.
