By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
There is something mesmerizing about bubbles. And if they are within reach, the urge to pop them is almost unstoppable (or maybe that’s just me!). But where does this fascination come from?
If you think about our forefathers, when would they have seen bubbles before liquid soaps were invented? Perhaps a lucky explorer could find bubbles coming out of a geyser. Perhaps there was a nearby carbonated spring to drink from. Perhaps people took great delight in baths and blew air bubbles under water.
But where did it all begin? People seem to have a natural affinity to watch unpredictable things. Take for instance a baseball game- no one knows who is going to hit a homer. I’m sure life could get boring back in the day, even though there were large predators to watch out for. If you sat by a fire and watched it, you probably couldn’t guess where the next flame would shoot out. The same is true for bubbles. You can’t predict where they’ll go. And at least for me, fires and bubbles have a very calming, mesmerizing effect.
Some people today opt for bubbles instead of rice to be thrown/blown at a wedding. We used birdseed to be friendly to the animals, but let me tell you, that stung when it hit us. Go for the bubbles, trust me! And what child doesn’t love getting bubbles as a party gift?
We recently went to the Baltimore Aquarium where in the entranceway were several cylindrical tanks with blue water and bubbles flowing through them. They looked like deep sea air vents. And what a gathering place it was! I didn’t see any child walk past without touching the tanks, and many photos were taken there as mementos.
Maybe bubbles go back even farther in our lineage. If you believe in evolution, and that we came from the ocean, maybe we saw such air vents. Maybe they were a place to eat or be entertained. You never know. Why we like bubbles is a mystery. What do you think?
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.