you have forgotten how to play with your toys
pushing 30, i have come to notice that myself and many others within two decades of my life span have forgotten how to play with toys. anytime i see an adult holding a toy it's always for a task. they do not like to be seen holding a 'childish item' and worry other fare adults will see them as someone enjoying their toy.
a method to see if someone is in critical condition is to try to give them a balloon. you give an adult a balloon and they'll waddle in place a bit then look around to see if anyone is watching. on average they'll say something like "ok" and stand there. someone deeply in need of help will say something like "what do you want me to do with this" or "why"
one time someone was so forgone that they flat out said "no" and almost pissed my pants in sadness.
there are some adults that do "play" with balloons, but it's always in a subversive or deconstructive way—satirizing the action with palpable contempt. i saw a noise artist one time using an inflated rubber balloon as an instrument. they aggrievedly rubbed it against their head and the microphone while banging on an empty wooden crate. they put too much friction on it and it eventually popped. they then loudly screamed (war cry). upon seeing this i pissed my pants in sadness.
a healthy person will actively try to take a balloon from you before even asking. children do this and then play with the balloon. for the record, this is all conjecture and i have not witnessed a child play with a balloon in years. as i write this, im trying to recollect what it felt like and my memory is probably objectively correct.
a child will play with a balloon first by hopping in place, then doing this *motion imitating jerking on the balloon string.* now, i know, as adults some of you think of a "jerking motion" and smirk. you're not explicitly thinking about masturbation, but more so the common gag where someone makes this motion, and others perceive the motion as someone jerking off, but they aren't. you find the motion itself is funny to laugh at, not the motion itself. sort of like how people will laugh at the number '69' but not actually think about the sex position '69.'
i want to assure you that this jerking motion has nothing to do with that and ask you try to not overwork your thoughts. i'm sure you're the type of person that thinks too much or likes to intake information—you are currently reading a 'prose' where i'm giving a lecture on how to play with a balloon correctly. as well, im sorry if my description of the motion with the added context of it being done by a child did not make you assume this is some perversion. if you did think that, id suggest you ask your closest friend to give you a prolonged hug until the heaviness fades and one of you starts to cry.
anyway, children will then play games with the balloon. curious children will roll the string around their finger and pull the balloon down to eye level so they can get a good look at it. if it's a plastic balloon, they might notice it's transparency and ability to see how the shadows of their fingertips look on the other side. the child will then see what the sensation of letting the string roll off of their finger naturally, seeing how the balloon always rises up. physical children might punch the balloon, not out of hatred, but for it to bounce back into them—mimicking a play fight.
once all discoveries have been made, children will move onto the "balloon chicken" movement. this is when the child will let go of the string and see how far they can let the balloon go before they grab the string again at the very last moment. this game always ends tragically, but it is natural and nothing to be afraid of. eventually, the string will slip out due to the wax on their hands and float out of reach.
if the child is playing indoors, the balloon will hit the ceiling. depending on the structure of a building, retrieving the balloon can be as easy as requesting a parent or adult pull it down for them. especially attentive parents might even catch the balloon before it touches the ceiling. if they are in something like a gymnasium, its a rather hopeless endeavor to retrieve it.
im of the opinion that people that play with balloons indoors are cowards and should have their legs broken, but i feel the empathy of having to stare at a dead balloon. when outdoors, you can see the balloon rise until it is completely out of sight. akin to religious faith, you'll naturally hope that the balloon safely made it to heaven, or beyond that, space. eventually the sun will made it impossible to keep looking, as it consumes it in it's light.
indoor dead balloons do not have that grace. they linger, stuck behind the florescent lights (pale imitation of sunlight that even a balloon could fly over. (there is nothing higher in the sky than the sun)) both alive and dead at the same time. i believe witnessing a balloon collide with the ceiling is a child's first conceptual experience of the death of a loved one, and this type of death leaves lasting scars. seeing someone alive die in front of you rather than having the grace of a loved one's only image being that "they are now resting."
this is why outdoor balloon enjoyers are based. but remember to be humble and, as always, respectful.
your homework for tonight is to research what happens to balloons after they fly out of reach. interestingly, it seems like we were never informed on what happens to balloons that fly to the sun, nor how they retrieve the balloons trapped behind electric lights. i hope whoever rescues ceiling dead balloons enjoys that all familiar stretch of reaching for a balloon so close in reach, and the euphoria on managing to snag the string between your two longest fingers.
if they are the type of person to take the balloon and look uncomfortable, i'd probably piss my pants in sadness.
