It's amazing how making a good bubble can be so complex. I didn't know one should take into consideration the humidity and the air packets in the area before making the soapy spheres. On the other hand it's amusing to see total strangers go near you and pop the bubbles you just made.
Why is it that when people see a bubble their first impulse is to pop it? Amiel's suggestions varied from the innate curiosity of humans to destruction being second nature to our species. I think it has something to do with power. From my observation of a group of children whose ages are from 3 to 7 years those who intentionally popped the bubbles displayed a desire to express themselves.
The children were mostly boys, there were only one or two girls in their group. Unfortunately though, I was too engrossed with making bubbles that I didn't bother to count how many screaming preschoolers surrounded me. The first time they saw the bubbles their second reaction (the first was to scream) was to pop them the moment they appeared. It was funny, but I got frustrated afterwards over the bubbles not lasting for more than half of a second. So I told the children to wait until the bubbles take flight before they chase and pop it, and they did. They watched politely for a bubble to form and glide away before they blew on it. Some even got out of the way of the giant orbs and only tried to touch them when they have floated well above their heads. Nevertheless, this VIP treatment of the bubbles didn't last long. Soon after one of the boys in the group started popping the bubbles. I didn't say anything about it, but the other children did, the admonishments was led by a girl, and afterwards by a boy. Peer pressure didn't stop the boy (let's call him "popper" for now) from popping the bubbles, though, even when the other children started using force to correct his unacceptable behavior. He even made it a point to pop each and every bubble he could get his finger into, and when the bubble flew high above his reach he threw stones at it. This didn't please the older children (older meaning not toddlers and are in the same age bracket as he is), there was a time when they stopped complaining and only stared in disappointment. There was a boy, though, who tried to resolve the conflict by lending (or shall I call it bribing) his toys to the other children who had taken to the "popper" and had started to pop the bubbles themselves. This proved useful for a while because the Donkey, Shrek and Spiderman toys diverted their attention from the bubbles. However there were also other children who didn't care for the toys as much as they did for huge bubbles, and the "popper" was one of them. He would walk away for a while and leave the others, after some time he would come back and pop the bubbles. Some of the kids got into fights because of the "popper's" behavior, they pushed each other in between dipping the Bubble-Thing© into the bubble solution and the creation of bubbles. The "popper", however still didn't stop, he even popped a bubble in front of the children who told him not to pop the bubbles.
A hasty analysis of the "popper's" behavior showed that his actions were prompted by a desire to be different from the rest. An authority figure (which was I) made the first rule of not popping the bubbles before they had a chance to glide away. This rule became the norm when the other children complied and merely watched the bubbles. The "popper", however went against the norm even when he knew what the norm was and the consequences of going against it. He disobeyed the rule on purpose. I relate his behavior to power because his case is akin to society's other deviants'. A reason why a person chooses to defy the norm or the common and accepted behavior is to gain a semblance of freedom from the stifling hold of society. Deviance is a means to dissociate one's self from the rest of society, through it a person may establish a desired identity. It is also a way to feed the ego, the food being the knowledge that he defied the system/norm, a figure of power, and got away with it. Although unsupported by any literature it is not impossible for this desire (to prove one's self to be above something else in the universe) to be carried over, consciously or otherwise, into adulthood. Hence, the almost reflexive behavior of people towards bubbles, especially to the huge ones.
I conclude, therefore, that no bubble will ever be safe within 5 feet of a human being, be he a child or an adult.
