What if a genie jumped in front of you on the way to the kitchen and offered you one wish?
I think it’s a sure bet you’d stop your search for something chocolate to eat and pay attention.
But here’s the thing, what would you wish for if you only had one wish?
Sure, you believe you’d know immediately, but would you?
Standing there with the opportunity to change everything about your life could you decide what’s most important?
Even if you were confident what wish you’d make, would it actually cover the entire specter of your needs?
I’m thinking probably not.
It’s easy to say if I had one wish I’d want…
But is it really?
What wish would truly change everything and give you the power to control the things you never wanted to happen? Or the things you do?
Of course, we’d all want to wish our loved ones back into our lives. And yes, it would be wonderful.
Yet wouldn’t it be better had they never left us in the first place? Wouldn’t it have been better to spare everyone the pain and heartbreak that comes with loss?
Sure, but how could you ever accomplish that end?
And what about the choices you made that didn’t pan out the way you thought they would? That weren’t completely thought out, made in haste or had the opposite effect you’d anticipated?
That’s a lot of wishes to cover; mistakes, bad choices and the do overs we aren’t allowed.
So what wish might encompass enough territory to truly make an amazing difference in our life’s path? Is it even possible to land on one?
To waste a wish would be foolish when there is only one to be had? It’s quite the dilemma.
I’ve thought about this a great deal, and yes, I have too much time on my hands. I think I may have solved the problem of what wish may include the greatest amount of good.
Go with me here, please.
I think I’d ask the Genie, who by the way looks and sounds just like Robin Williams, for a chance to fix every bad thing before it happens.
Huh?
That’s right. I’d want to know if any choice I was making, or anybody I knew was making turned out bad before it happened. That way I could change the outcome and prevent bad stuff from happening.
Could you only imagine how different the world would be if we all could stop the horrible things from happening?
Yes, I understand the whole Butterfly Effect thing.
How one small change can cause a massive ripple through time, but isn’t that the point? The consequences of the actions are entirely the point.
So, although the Butterfly Effect may change the outcome, isn’t it the actual outcome that we wish to avoid?
How wonderful would it be to warn the people we love to get their heart checked before it’s too late? Or to get any medical test that would stop them from getting sick. To stay home when going out could be deadly or watch those steps before they fall.
So many things and small choices can lead us down a road of no return, but the wish could stop all that.
It would literally undo the unfortunate results of any act or decision that had resulted in irreparable harm.
However, would anyone heed our warnings? That’s another blog entirely.
To erase the choices that have taken us to a place we’d never wished to enter would be amazing.
It would be a mistake proof existence. No regrets, no beating ourselves up over stupid or foolish options, never losing the ones we love to pain and suffering.
We would know before bad things happened. That way we’d be able to prevent the moves we and others made that negatively impacted our existences.
But there’s the rub. For there already exists a warning bell within us which rings to advise us about mistakes. That little gnawing in the pit of our gut that is saying loud and clear, this isn’t a good idea. Yet too often we ignore this voice or override its alert.
Do we suffer afterward? Yes, but by then it’s too late. But perhaps ignoring the voice is the only choice we actually can make, because the control doesn’t really lie with us.
Of course, I’m assuming that those choices were ours to make and not some universally forged blueprint written in stone.
The belief that fate intervenes to ensure the life chosen for us plays out as planned.
I, as many others, have been privy to moments that practically screamed, “sorry, you need to do this or that and not the other.” Actually, I must say destiny has a pretty big mouth.
The Italians have an expression, “La forza del destino,” the force of destiny.
So if that’s true perhaps knowing the future isn’t really a very good idea. Especially if we can’t change or make it better.
It would probably be more painful to eliminate the element of surprise. We’d have to live knowing that something bad is going to happen we can’t fix.
Isn’t it enough we often feel so helpless and frustrated when faced with unexpected tragedy we wished we could have changed?
I suppose we’d all like to believe we could have “do overs.” That a momentary lapse of judgement ruined an outcome we hoped for. Or ignoring that little voice in the pit of our stomach that’s screaming, “Danger Will Robinson,” was a foolish thing to have done. I imagine the real question is; Can we control destiny through wishing? Or must we merely accept reality and come to terms with our fate?
So many people I know believe you carve out your own life. I suppose to a large extent, this is true. The daily choices we make like vanilla or chocolate, Maj Jong or canasta, drive or walk, belong to us.
But what about the life changing ones like, when we are born, die and whom we marry? What path we follow or do we have what it takes to overcome the great challenges one may face? These may not be ours to choose.
Perhaps it’s a bit of both, or none, I’m not the boss of the universe so I can’t say.
I just know I’d like to believe we have a bit to say about how we live our lives and even what our future will be. But then again, I also believe in Santa Claus, the Ark of the Covenant and the FBI spying on me through my computer camera. So maybe I’m not one to give advice.
Still, I’ll opt to play genie here and wish all your choices work out as you’d want. Maybe just the wishing can help make it happen. One can only hope.
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