Lani's Blog

Wishes

PROMPT: If you could have three wishes, what would they be?





Wishes are dangerous things as far as I’m concerned. Well, maybe not wishes themselves but the wish granter. Demons, fairies, elves and leprechauns are notoriously unreliable in any story I have ever read. And they all seem to have some kind of hidden agenda. Geniies seem particularly capricious. In “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” by Gary K Wolf the genii took malicious joy in granting wishing that expired or had a hidden twist. Cinderella’s fairy godmother’s wishes only lasted until midnight.





Angels cannot be trusted either. Demons have been known to masquerade as “angels of light.” Isaac Asimov told great demon wish granting stories in Azazel. The demon grants wishes exactly as they were asked. This can be a problem if you get exactly what you asked for. Think King Midas.





Okay forget the granter of wishes. What does the most common wishes look like when granted?





World Peace: What does that look like? Does that mean we all become the same and uniform so that there is no longer differences to fight about? Or does everyone but me disappears so there is no other humans to strive against? Or do I get transported to an empty world for a world of peace?





Next most common wish: a large amount of wealth. What does that look like: money? jewels? gold? Where does it come from? Am I going to have to defend my life against the drug dealers the money was stolen from? If the wealth is legit, how do I explain the sudden wealth to my accountant?





Good health and long life or immortality are other common wishes. How would that work? I remember reading about the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses when I was a child. In one of the books was a story of a goddess who fell in love with a mortal and asks Zeus for immortality for her man. He granted it. However as the man aged, he became a cricket. The goddess had forgotten to ask for eternal youth. Her sister learned from that mistake. Instead of asking for immortality for her man she asked for eternal sleep.








Okay, Okay I can feel the eye rolls. What would I wish for if there were no strings attached, no twists no problems? I don’t know. I have everything I need. I wish I had more money to help others but I do the best can now. I wish I had better social skills but I am working on it. I wish I had better health but a lot of my problems are poor choices. I could change.


I have a feeling that one reason wish granting is not real life is that there is a purpose in the striving. God is probably watching and guiding our lives to see what kind of character and spiritual muscles we build. I think fairy godmothers would just get in the way.











Lani