Unchecked Joy

Today we experienced a moment of unchecked joy.

Having found considerable interest in my Pustefix Rocket bubble blower during the AM recess at elementary school, I brought my Pustefix bear outside for the afternoon affair. First I let my little cadre blow some. This soon attracted other children. After awhile I moved out to the grassy area and offered it to the growing masses.

Finally I told the kids I would be the one to blow, and they could be the catchers. I blew long streams of bubbles. These, carried by the wind, sailed into and over groups of children – probably thirty or forty in all. Each flurry of bubbles attracted a sub-flurry of children – yelling, squealing, shrieking and running.

I thought back to my youth, to a time when I was hunting geese with my father in North Dakota. The barking pandemonium that five thousand geese make when they are rising from the water was not unlike what I saw now before me. Jumping into the air in pursuit of bubbles, the kids seemed to be lifting off. It was mass hysteria of an excellent kind, of the free-spirited bubble kind.

I soon closed up shop, fearing some responsible adult educator would shut me down for reasons of safety or hyperactivity. I was supposed to be watching the kids, not playing with them. Besides, other children were starting to complain that the bubble kids were running into their track lanes. Indeed, one did not look very carefully at where one was going when one chased the breezy bubbles in a shifting wind.

A teacher on patrol walked toward me. I braced myself for the formal lecture on school safety and protocol. “That was wonderful!” she said.

More than wonderful: it was unchecked, pandemonious gaiety; pure joy, unleashed.