Water Balloons

Written in July 2011: I have never been so happy to see water balloons as I was this afternoon. I was visiting a mom who I had been building a relationship with over the last month in the Freedom Housing Projects. All of a sudden I saw a young man duck around the corner and a colored balloon whiz by my face and "SPLAT" it hit the side of the house. Then I heard laughter. I saw guys running after each other saying "I'm going to get you." I saw a mom yell at these young men, yet not really angry. I saw joy flash across broken faces of men who's future is as unknown as the date of the apocalypse.
Most of these men had dropped out of high school, hanging out at friends' houses probably doing drugs or drinking, and for some going in and out of jail. Men my age who probably never met their fathers or even had a God fearing man in their life to show them what a real man is. Instead gang leaders, drug dealers, and pimps show them what being a "man" is. On this afternoon rather than dodging the police or bullets, they were ducking from water balloons. On this afternoon, laughter and joy rang through the air as balloons were filled and escape routes plotted. Normalcy entered their lives for a brief moment in time as young men played.