The Metal Ball Display

One of my favorite places in the whole world is the Children’s Museum in Pueblo, Colorado. I spent many happy and memorable hours in that museum. I will never forget those memories.

When you walk in, the sound of boisterous chatter among small children is the first thing you notice. Kids are running everywhere, eager to touch anything and everything they see in the museum. Children sit at the colorful computers playing games; the pleasant humming of the computers never stopping. Quite possibly the second thing you’ll notice is the enormous floor-to-ceiling contraption that is held inside a glass case. It is bursting with shiny, metal chutes, slides, wheels, and anything else you could think of that a tiny metal ball could maneuver its way through. Multiple balls are set off at the same time, so your eyes are constantly darting from side to side, trying to figure out where the balls are.They spin, drop, and slide until they reach the bottom, where a tiny lift shoots it back up to the top.

Watching those balls travel through the obstacles is like observing a busy city. The people are bustling through the streets, avoiding traffic and the possibility of bumping into someone. They are going somewhere specific, and by all means, they’re going to get there no matter what happens along the way.

Just like the balls, the people are always moving, always looking ahead. There are all sorts of sounds in the city; clanking, chiming, ringing, rumbling- and those sounds never stop in the city, because that is the city’s way of life. And those noises do not distract the people of the city, because they carry on with their lives. It would not be a city without those brilliant sights and sounds. Just like the city, those balls keep moving until they reach the bottom.

To witness this display, you can’t help but think of a million different metaphors that relates to those metal balls. You can’t help but stare and be in awe.

In life, just like the metal balls, you have to keep going. No matter how much you feel you’ve been spun around and left behind, just look towards the future, because the future is bright. The future is where you can always start fresh.