Ben-A-Ball Origin

[8:23:59 PM] Zack: Ben A Ball
[8:24:05 PM] Zack: you should make a game
[8:24:07 PM] Zack: of it
[8:24:07 PM] Zack: lol
[8:24:09 PM] Ben A Ball: yeah
[8:24:10 PM] Zack: hmm
[8:24:17 PM] Zack: different names though
[8:24:17 PM] Zack: cos zerg might get pixar on ur arse

Hah!
“cos zerg might get pixar on ur arse”

My friend Zack said this in Skype the other day,
Now hang on, let me explain what on earth Zerg is doing in the chat.
This all leads into this one question.

When did ‘Ben-A-Ball’ start?

The actual name didn’t come about till awhile later, it started with me playing imagination games, by myself, in Kindergarten, I would run around the Kinder yard, jumping off rocks, imagining different places, different things. Me, saving the world that I had created, from evil, I would walk up to the walls and pretend I was talking to people, ‘imaginary friends’ if you like.

The name came up a little later, and man, this is going to sound stupid.
But you know those trading cards, those ones that have different creatures on them with their attacks etc . . .
I’m purposely not saying the name here, well I made my own little trading card game, I called it ‘Ben-A-Ball The Trading Card Game’, I drew all my own creatures and magic cards.
I had creatures like ‘Super King Dragon’ and a creature called “Time Time” there was also a weird creature called “Aku” and an incredibly fast lightning speed horse-like creature with a lightning bolt running from its front leg past its tail. The hyphens in Ben-A-Ball are because of the name of this particular trading card game that I had taken a liking to, and the word ‘Ball’, I have a feeling came from the certain object used in this trading card game. I’m pretty sure that’s how the name came about, that’s all I can remember, I’ve stretched far back trying to seek the origins of this weird name . . . but the clouds block my view any further.

The next thing I can think back to, I use to try and hang out with a group of kids, but they would tease me because I didn’t look or wear the same boots as them and all that rubbish.
Anyways, one day one of the people in the group was at a dentists appointment, so the group had room for one more.(Guess Who!)
The leader of thy clan asked me to hang out follow etc. At one point this guy came back, so I was kicked out of the group. But I would never have to return, because I met Zack, under the big wooden play equipment, made out of that wood that’s illegal to have now in play sets now.
Anyways, from then on Zack and I would play the same style saving the world game I had played previously, except we called it by the name, “Ben-A-Ball”

Later a few other kids joined the Ben-A-Ball game, Nathan, Bradley, Robyn. 5 kids, lost in a world that I simply lay breadcrumbs for, they created what they thought this world of mine looked like in their minds.

Further still about Grade 3, after a few years of playing Ben-A-Ball I’d had more people want to play Ben-A-Ball, because they’d been told about it by people that were playing it with me, so more people joined and we changed from the continuous role-playing (because a group of 15 wasn’t working) into a non-contact play fighting sort of a thing, where you had imaginary powers, we’d fight both each other, and I would pretend to be different enemies, of which the other people would test their ‘skills’ against.

Grade 4, Ben-A-Ball began to wore off, the Play-fighting thing stopped, many people went off to do different things, and I was left with the person that I’d started with. Zack.

We continued to play the Ben-A-Ball game until the end of the year, of which I had shocking news.
I was moving house, traveling to the other side of the state to live “South”.

I was intrigued to hear that after I left, the Playfighting thing, and Ben-A-Ball started up again, maybe with me gone other people could feel the accomplishment and satisfaction it gave me when I controlled that world, my world.

Started Grade 5 in a new school, a school that seemed to hate imagination, and was just covered in sport, (from first glance), the only thing this school had, basically, was a sports oval, resulting in everyone there being active and sporty and whatnot.
I met a few people (Of which I will not embarrass them) in the end that would end up playing the last game of Ben-A-Ball ever, this ‘episode’ of Ben-A-Ball I named “The Darkness Provails” with the spelling mistake of “Prevails” being spelt “Provails”, I just said that’s how I wanted it. ‘Cos it looked better.
The rest of my world got locked away, the moment Grade 6 started, no one was interested in running round at this age imagining things, also that and because of puberty you suddenly care what everyone thinks, and you don’t do the things you would have done when you were younger.
This world continues in my head,
And some day I will write these adventures down.

So there we have it, It’s now 11:25 PM, I really need to lug myself to sleep, I get too caught up in this stuff . . . writing . . . mind intriguing . . .

But I want you to remember this.

I want you to not think of Ben-A-Ball as that game, I don’t want you to think of it as some stupid name made up by a preschooler, its a symbol.

After all this time, it has become a symbol of hope, it’s a symbol of difference,
It stands for that of right of mind, opinion, it stands for value, for respect,
It’s mysterious and strange.

All these meanings and symbols have all clung to it over time, but its always stood for one thing.

One thing that many of us cannot do anymore,
Many people can’t do it once they are no longer a child.

All this time, right from the beginning.

The meaning of Ben-A-Ball

Imagine.