You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

This is not about what you think it is from the title. It isn’t about owning a weapon. On one level it is about being a child and wanting something beyond reason and the probability that you will never get what you want. And the certainty that whatever it is you desire will probably not be good for you. On another it is about the parent who helps gives us wings.

One of my favorite movies is called, ‘A Christmas Story’. The story is about a little boy who only wants a ‘Red Rider Bebe gun’ for Christmas. He worries about how he will ask for it in such a manner that the present will not be refused out of hand by his parents.

The boy thinks of every possible way to convince his parents that he should get the gun. He tries to enlist the help of his teacher and finally even gives in to asking Santa. At every turn the response is, ‘You’ll shoot your eye out.’ His frustration grows and grows.

Finally Christmas arrives and while he receives a number of excellent gifts there is no ‘Red Rider Bebe gun.’ When his parents ask if he was happy with all his gifts his resignation is complete. He responds in the affirmative with a sad little smile. Then his father points to a gift well-hidden behind the tree. It is the longed for Bebe gun. His father had listened and bought him the gun. He remembered wanting one at the same age and getting it.


Of course, the boy begs to use it and his mother tells him to go ahead but to be careful, ‘Don’t shoot your eye out.’ He runs outside and takes careful aim. When he fires at the target the gun jerks back, hits him in the head and knocks off his glasses. At first he thinks the dire warning has come true. When he realises he is okay he tries to find the glasses and steps on them breaking the glasses. A fate worse than death awaited any child who broke his glasses or lost them. I did it a few times myself. So I know.

The boy has to invent a story about what happened to his glasses so his parents don’t go ballistic and take away his gun. He tells them that an icicle fell and hit him. A plausible story because back when we had winters that cold, it did happen. It was a constant warning from our parents not to stand underneath an icicle.

His mother accepts his story and they have a happy Christmas. The boy reckons it was the best gift he ever received or ever would receive. No other gift he ever receives matches up to that one.

I watch that movie and I am back in time. I remember winters that were that cold and all the snow. I remember the anticipation and preparation leading up to the holiday. And I remember what it felt like to want something that badly. It was a wonderful innocent time but it was one where in retrospect we were powerless. Subject to the decisions made by parents older and wiser. Subject to warnings about what would and would not be good for us.

As a child there was a purity to our wanting. And in our belief that our strongest desires would come true if we just believed enough, even if our desire wasn’t good for us. As adults that purity is gone as is our belief that we can make all things happen if we just try hard enough.

We now know we have to slog to get things. Slog hard. We have to make them happen ourselves. And we have to make the decisions about what is or is not good for us.

In this day and age, I long for the simplicity of those childhood beliefs. And sometimes, when I’m wanting something badly that might not be good for me, I hear my mother’s voice saying, ‘You’ll shoot your eye out.’ Just like the boy in the story I’m glad that I had a father who understood and when it was really important to me, he never told me, ‘You’ll shoot your eye out.’