RUBBER BANDS 

The first stretch is agonizing. The suffering continues as they contract back to their normal size, but now it’s the pain of realizing that they were born elastic.

Some rubber bands, though, never return to their original state. They are stretched around things like stacks of paper, or bunches of chopsticks, and stay that way, sometimes for many years, until old age makes them brittle.

Many rubber bands dream about being solid as bricks, unstretchable by even the strongest hands. Or they may fantasize that they’ve become like their most powerful relatives, the long-lived bungee cords.

On the bright side, the very nature of rubber bands allow them to retaliate when someone stretches them excessively by snapping themselves and, like a whip, inflicting stinging pain on the offending hand.