Make a wish…three words almost everyone over the age of 5 has hoped to hear whether it be from a fairy, a mermaid or a leprechaun. I remember when I was young, about 7 or 8 years old, I went to a slumber party where this question came up. There were about nine girls there, it was dark outside and we had already played a round or two of “Light as a Feather” so with bellies full of pizza and our brains humming with Kool-Aid we got into our sleeping bags and contemplated what we would wish for if we could have three wishes. Since we were positioned in a circle and I was on the right side of the girl who started, I would be last. I knew right away what I would wish for and for about a second, I thought I was so clever; I was going to wish for three more wishes. Of course for me to be able to deliver my ‘oh so clever’ answer I’d have to count on every other girl there not thinking the same thing. Each girl went one after another and I waited and hoped no one else would wish for more wishes because no matter how much I wished it, I had no backup plan. Finally, my turn came and to my surprise, no one else had wished for more wishes, I was going to get to be clever.
The looks on the faces of the other girls was priceless, every one of them wished, ahem, that they had thought of that and they all wanted to change their answers. To demonstrate my own cleverness, I even modified my own answer and wished that every wished I wished would come true rather than settling for only three more. A conversation ensued about still more things to wish for, a conversation I was only half listening to. A couple of the girls actually wished violence on people, mostly older siblings, and a couple of the girls wished they were older. As I listened my mind wandered to all the times I had wished violence on my own brother. Of course with the wishing thing and being able to un-wish the violence, what harm could it do? Still, it would mean he had to go through the pain first, and what about the times when I was mad enough to wish he was never born. Would I be able to wish him back? I mean if I wished he was never born and got my wish, he wouldn’t exist for me to bring him back. That got me thinking about time travel and on and on it went until my head was spinning and all I could think of were the possible consequences and the myriad of ways in which I could totally mess things up.
I have thought about consequences ever since, not just in relation to potentially meeting with a mermaid, leprechaun or fairy, but in life, real life, I tend to think about consequences before I act, so that is a good thing. My point is, are wishes a good idea? Wishes are magical by nature so if wishes are a bad idea, is magic a bad idea as well? Even if a ritual or spell or even a prayer is carefully constructed and we believe we have thought of every possible consequence, it’s more likely that we haven’t, particularly if said ritual, spell or prayer involves humans. Where humans are concerned, variables are in the tens of thousands and there just isn’t any way that a person, no matter how thoughtful, could think of them all. Not to mention that having wishes come true might mess with fate. But then, who believes in fate anymore, right?
I have thought the same thing with other questions people ponder, such as the age old super powers question. If you could have a super power, what would it be? I have not only thought about this question myself but have asked many people as well. Honestly, I have never heard a really good answer. Mine is usually that I would want the power to heal. I wouldn’t want to raise the dead, but healing people would be good and make me invaluable at the League of Justice where injuries would be inevitable. Still, with most other super powers people say they would like to have, my question is always the same, to what end? There are clearly some super powers that would only serve to make a person very popular but as far as being useful, well, they really aren’t so much. On the other hand, I with my noble wish to heal, had to think that through as well. Let’s say I come across an automobile accident on a fairly desolate road. First, I get on my phone and call for help but then, I look around. There is a man in one car. He looks pretty badly hurt. In the other car, the one that looks as though it was in front, there is a woman and in the back, safe and sound but scared, is a toddler. The woman doesn’t look so good either. Upon closer examination, I realize the man and the woman are both in trouble, bleeding out and what-not. What to do?
Let’s say that for this scenario, I take a moment to think it through. The position of the cars and the fact that the woman has a child with her leads me to believe that a mother was trying to get away from her husband or ex. The position of the cars also leads me to believe that the man gave chase, likely causing the panic that led to the accident in the first place. Based on what I see and knowing that at this point I have enough time to heal one of them, only one, which do I choose? Let’s say I choose the woman. She “miraculously” lives, but the man dies. What if later I find out that the father was the one with custody because the mother was unstable and had escaped from a facility where she was being held for evaluation after putting that toddler in the hospital when she tried to light him on fire. She escaped and then she kidnapped her child from pre-school. The husband was following so he would know where she went and hopefully get his son back safely. Now, the toddler will become a ward of the state and the mother, already troubled, will only be more troubled. So, did I make the right choice?
I suppose it all boils down to consequences. A vast majority of people in this world think very little about consequence, likely that has to do with the fact that a vast majority of people in this world prefer to set themselves up to not have to make decisions at all, thus avoiding consequence altogether. People leave their spiritual growth to priests and their very souls to an abstraction in the sky. They leave their mental health to the “experts” who keep them medicated, but never have any intention of curing them, there’s no money in healthy people after all. The same is true for our physical health. It is left to the “experts” who keep us just healthy enough to be able to pay their bills.
So, after much contemplation, I think that if I met up with a fairy, a mermaid or a leprechaun I don’t know what I would wish for, if anything at all. Wishes are just too easy. I believe work and practice and thought to consequence should go into the abilities we acquire whether they are "super" or not. I suppose the consequence of thinking all this through is that I find I am simply more content with myself just the way I am. To have no extraordinary abilities means there will be no extraordinary expectations and no extraordinary mistakes, I’m fine with that.
I have thought about consequences ever since, not just in relation to potentially meeting with a mermaid, leprechaun or fairy, but in life, real life, I tend to think about consequences before I act, so that is a good thing. My point is, are wishes a good idea? Wishes are magical by nature so if wishes are a bad idea, is magic a bad idea as well? Even if a ritual or spell or even a prayer is carefully constructed and we believe we have thought of every possible consequence, it’s more likely that we haven’t, particularly if said ritual, spell or prayer involves humans. Where humans are concerned, variables are in the tens of thousands and there just isn’t any way that a person, no matter how thoughtful, could think of them all. Not to mention that having wishes come true might mess with fate. But then, who believes in fate anymore, right?
I have thought the same thing with other questions people ponder, such as the age old super powers question. If you could have a super power, what would it be? I have not only thought about this question myself but have asked many people as well. Honestly, I have never heard a really good answer. Mine is usually that I would want the power to heal. I wouldn’t want to raise the dead, but healing people would be good and make me invaluable at the League of Justice where injuries would be inevitable. Still, with most other super powers people say they would like to have, my question is always the same, to what end? There are clearly some super powers that would only serve to make a person very popular but as far as being useful, well, they really aren’t so much. On the other hand, I with my noble wish to heal, had to think that through as well. Let’s say I come across an automobile accident on a fairly desolate road. First, I get on my phone and call for help but then, I look around. There is a man in one car. He looks pretty badly hurt. In the other car, the one that looks as though it was in front, there is a woman and in the back, safe and sound but scared, is a toddler. The woman doesn’t look so good either. Upon closer examination, I realize the man and the woman are both in trouble, bleeding out and what-not. What to do?
Let’s say that for this scenario, I take a moment to think it through. The position of the cars and the fact that the woman has a child with her leads me to believe that a mother was trying to get away from her husband or ex. The position of the cars also leads me to believe that the man gave chase, likely causing the panic that led to the accident in the first place. Based on what I see and knowing that at this point I have enough time to heal one of them, only one, which do I choose? Let’s say I choose the woman. She “miraculously” lives, but the man dies. What if later I find out that the father was the one with custody because the mother was unstable and had escaped from a facility where she was being held for evaluation after putting that toddler in the hospital when she tried to light him on fire. She escaped and then she kidnapped her child from pre-school. The husband was following so he would know where she went and hopefully get his son back safely. Now, the toddler will become a ward of the state and the mother, already troubled, will only be more troubled. So, did I make the right choice?
I suppose it all boils down to consequences. A vast majority of people in this world think very little about consequence, likely that has to do with the fact that a vast majority of people in this world prefer to set themselves up to not have to make decisions at all, thus avoiding consequence altogether. People leave their spiritual growth to priests and their very souls to an abstraction in the sky. They leave their mental health to the “experts” who keep them medicated, but never have any intention of curing them, there’s no money in healthy people after all. The same is true for our physical health. It is left to the “experts” who keep us just healthy enough to be able to pay their bills.
So, after much contemplation, I think that if I met up with a fairy, a mermaid or a leprechaun I don’t know what I would wish for, if anything at all. Wishes are just too easy. I believe work and practice and thought to consequence should go into the abilities we acquire whether they are "super" or not. I suppose the consequence of thinking all this through is that I find I am simply more content with myself just the way I am. To have no extraordinary abilities means there will be no extraordinary expectations and no extraordinary mistakes, I’m fine with that.