![_Boys Blowing Bladder_ by Peter Perez Burdett](/906px-BoysBlowingBladder_by_Peter_Perez_Burdett.jpg)

[![_Little House in the Big Woods_ by Laura Ingalls Wilder](/little-house-bladder.png)](https://books.google.com/books?id=1-_eDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22pa+said.+he+was+blowing+up+the%22+little+house&source=bl&ots=04SWzzNgyW&sig=ACfU3U2x5thzHQd-SM-1bAQZMOfnDT4J7w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo4sSE6NmBAxUtJEQIHXOCDzAQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22pa%20said.%20he%20was%20blowing%20up%20the%22%20little%20house&f=false)

# much worse than kids stomping that pig's bladder

[^note]: Extra credit: [a study of balloon](http://www.shiro1000.jp/pneu/pneu2-e.html),
[Little House on the Prairie: 21st Century Edition](http://movingtotheprairie.blogspot.com/2011/03/little-house-in-big-woods-chapter-1.html),
[Make a Pig-Bladder Ball](https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/make-a-pig-bladder-ball-zmaz83sozshe/)

After emptying its residual urine, an
[inflated pig's bladder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_bladder) can be
kicked, tossed,
[stomped](https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2017/12/take-it-outside-christmas-morning-and.html),
and fashioned into a
[fool's stick](https://www.efdss.org/learning/resources/glossary/9728-fools-stick#:~:text=Carried%20by%20the%20fool%2C%20the,dancers%20and%20occasionally%20the%20audience.).

Yes, children played with animal organs.

Balloon animals
[were made from intestines](https://zephyrsolutions.com/original-balloon-animals-made-animals/),
inflated and tied into shapes of animals (intestinception).

If I saw my neighbor's daughter playing with intestines, I'd call the cops.

But if only those happy children of yore could see me lavishing on their dying
planet.

I violated [the scout's rule](https://wiki.c2.com/?BoyScoutRule): I left my
campsite worse than how I found it.

Forget carbon and ozone and plastic and coal and whatever -- every year, what I
steal from the commons outweighs my contributions.

A pig's bladder can be grown and regrown, but plastic sits in the ocean
forever(ish).

A pig's bladder can make a game of football, or be reconstituted
[into cheap calories for other pigs](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23817808/pig-farm-investigation-feedback-immunity-feces-intestines).

My food cannot be made like this indefinitely. My life cannot be powered like
this indefinitely. My toys and electronics and furniture and trinkets cannot be
made like this indefinitely.

I want to build life from the things around me.