You'll put your eye out

One of our holiday traditions is to attend the Denver Parade of Lights. A few years ago, my boys were throwing slush balls at each other before the parade. The Christmas Story tagline "you'll put your eye out" warning didn't matter to the boys. Boys will be boys no matter how urgent the parental warning.

Of course the inevitable happened. SPLAT! A slush ball nailed Caleb right between the eyes. He was unable to open his eyes for hours. For the rest of the evening I lead my teen son around by the arm. That year he experienced the parade as a temporary blind person. Kind of reminds me of Bill Cosby's 1967 skit Revenge. YIkes! I remember that?

We get warnings from so many voices. Don't do this. Don't do that. If you do X then Y will happen. Consequences. Danged Law of Cause and Effect. Sure, sometimes the Y absolutely sucks. On the other hand there are countless possibilities for the X factor. Randomness is the basis for Nassim Taleb's book The Black Swan. In a nutshell a black swan is an event that turns your world upside down. You can't plan for it. You won't see it coming. An unknown X-Factor.


This guy doesn't have resolutions for 2010. Just goals. Resolutions get sidelined by way too many day-to-day excuses. Self-imposed black swans if you will. There may be some black swans or stray slush balls in the year. Occasionally I'll need to be lead around as a blind man. Isn't that what blogs and the whole social networking scene are about?

I don't want to always listen to conventional wisdom. I want to push myself. I want to try new things. There is way too much to do and see. I may "put my eye out" with the things and experiences I desire. What the heck. Perhaps I will be better for it.