Friday, December 20, 2013


Well, dear readers, the Christmas holiday is a mere four days away. We at Site for Sore Eyes Berkeley hope that those who celebrate will have a joyous and memorable holiday.
And because it is Christmas, the staff of Site for Sore Eyes naturally thinks of a movie which has become a holiday classic. It is the story of Ralphie, a little kid who wears very big eyeglasses (something we certainly appreciate) whose one wish for Christmas is to own an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. (No it is NOT a BB gun, as people mistakenly think.) A Christmas Story is sure to play on TV stations and DVD or Blu-Ray players across the country as you read this.
While A Christmas Story is a fun, funny family classic, those of us at Site for Sore Eyes also consider it a morality tale. Here’s why…
{SPOILER ALERT! If you are one of the few people on earth that have NEVER seen A Christmas Story, stop here, see it, and THEN continue reading…}
Throughout this tale, little Ralphie’s pleas for the Red Ryder Air Rifle (for space considerations, we won’t list all of the adjectives again) are met with the warning: “you’ll shoot your eye out!” Ralphie hears this from everyone – his parents, Santa Claus, and even his teacher .
We’ll stop here; aficionados of A Christmas Story know what happens. And we at Site for Sore Eyes Berkeley know what happens, which brings us to the moral of the story…
The fundamental fact of nature is that kids will be kids. They are excited about the whole holiday…waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve, coming down to the tree (by the way, are the ornaments out of their reach?), and opening their presents. Be cautious in selecting gifts for very young children (i.e., no toys with sharp or small pieces). Are your kids a little older? They then think that they are invincible and that nothing can happen to them, so they can have toys that are a bit risky (wrong!).
In all of their holiday merriment, they will be running and jumping around. They could get hurt. Stay alert, and (gently) lay down the laws about how they can and cannot play. Ralphie learned his lesson the hard way, but got off easy; don’t let that be the case with your kids.
Make your Christmas holiday a safe holiday. Thanks for reading. Keep your sites on healthy vision, and we’ll see you in the New Year!

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