The Big Red Ball
I was standing downstairs on the street of my office building smoking a cigarette the other morning when I looked up to find this enormous ball bulging from the sides of a bus shelter.
It was a welcome respite from an otherwise dull morning. I usually spend my mornings trying to figure 0ut a way to get through another day. I put out my cigarette and walked into the building to get back upstairs. One my way up in the elevator it hit me that I may never see something like this again. This was truly exciting and I smiled for the first time in a long time before the noon hour. (I am NOT a morning person)
I decided to track down a digital camera or find someone with a camera phone to take a picture. I borrowed my IT guys digital camera and ran downstairs to find a group of school children wandering around the bulging ball. They were poking at it with their tiny fingers, sniffing it and commenting on how it smelled like pizza. They didn’t realize that there was a pizza parlor in the same building readying itself for lunch sending the wafting smell of pizza out onto the street. The ooh’s, aaah’s and screeching didn’t stop the whole time I was down there. I snapped a few pictures and commented to my co-worker that my picture would be more artistic if those, “damn kids” would get out of the way. This is just my morning personality shining through.
After I took the picture and reviewed them I realized how the picture is more artistic and more alive with those little kids in it. I realized how the big red ball made me feel too! If I weren’t such a grown up I might have walked over to the ball, poked it a couple of times and sniffed it as well.
I guess it worked – it brought the play back into my life.
For more about the big red ball project — go here: http://www.redballproject.com/redballpages/redball.html
