The “Drama Triangle” popped up again at work; this is when a person takes the role of victim, rescuer, or persecutor during interactions. Compared to three years ago when I last had an extended Drama Triangle episode, this time I over-indexed on being the rescuer. While maybe, maybe, better than playing the victim, playing the rescuer also has its downfalls. From my experience, the rescuer role is emotionally exhausting with no benefit to you or the ones rescued. I believe that I grew this time around. I spotted the pattern sooner and avoided reprising the “victim.”
In reflecting, two areas emerged for exploration: (1) growth, and (2) concepts where the “whole” is described with three attributes like roles, phases, parts, or states. Sometimes represented with a circle, the “whole” could be time (past, present, future), human experience (mind, body, spirit), stages of life (birth, life, death), Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), or other concepts across spiritual, indigenous, cultural, or recovery traditions. Depending on the tradition, you might have symbols of a triangle inside a circle or a circle inside of a triangle or interlocking triangles. In all of them, there is implied movement, strength, stability.
Yet, when I think about my life, the triangle is rarely equilateral. I overindex on one leg at any given time, and the “whole” is not always top of mind. To me, growing involves expanding outward. Once I become reasonably competent with the legs of one triangle, another triangle with different legs comes to the fore. As my circle, my whole, grows, the work of avoiding seemingly satisfying illusions and of finding stability and peace begins anew.
When I started drawing, everything was geometrical, balanced, and expanding outward. It didn’t match lived experience. When I distorted the triangles and circles and when I added more vibrant colors into the blue/black space, the sometimes disorienting and sometimes clear feelings emerged and matched the internal. For the background, small points of light, stars, are some concepts represented by a threesome across a random mix of spiritual traditions. “Wowed” by the symbols and art from those trying to express these concepts across the thousands of years before me, I humbly add my limited foray.
Some intermediate pieces are included below this entry as I navigated to the final work on the left.
