The Fun of Fear

... waiting for Nerf gun fun to begin ...

We all have to give up well loved beliefs. Bonnie has to give up hers as well. To the point, the idea that a person should avoid having guns as toys. Now Moiya gave up the idea 30 years ago. In fact, the best part of their Christmas tradition is that they all got water guns and then got to run around the house squirting each other. The variety of the gun changed for the Woods – marshmallow guns, Nerf guns, anything that can be held in your hand while you run around the house screaming, really bathing yourself in the Christmas spirit of family togetherness.

David Camps gets no charge out of that kind of fear. He covers his ears when scary music accompanies cartoons, he fast forwards through cartoons when one character is beating up another – he goes to the movies and takes the option of sitting out in the foyer while his friends are enjoying the movie inside. Anything to keep himself calm. But Bonnie and he discovered two Nerf guns as they were going through the toys, and one thing lead to another with them running through the house, hiding behind doors and then jumping out at one another.

I asked Bonnie when she changed her stance politically speaking, from no guns to guns. She said over the course of teaching children how to speak, ones who can’t find words – that you grasp for anything that will work. Anything. When a parent has a child who can’t speak and the child finds all or even part of the word gun – then your politics changes.

Arta