posted
I was asked today if I had three wishes, what would I wish for. I answered: a platter of sushi, a cup of tea, and a good book.
Most people seemed puzzled by this. But I think that most of the grandiose thigns I would wish for (wealth, success, brilliance) either would only make me unhappy or are worth working for. I would not want to get to the top by snapping my fingers; I want to climb there.
Really, I think wishing is only worth it for the simple things. Things that are gone soon enough. Wishing is an idle sport, so perhaps it should be reserved for idle pastimes. And if you wish for that which is easy to get, you go through life generally happy and optimistic.
What are your three wishes? Why?
Posts: 550 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
There's a Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin spends 5 panels deciding between wealth, power, and fame. Hobbes then wishes for a sandwich. Calvin tells him he's crazy.
Last panel shows Hobbes eating a sandwich and saying, "I got my wish."
Explaining: There's a Johnny Bravo cartoon I just remembered, in which he keeps trying to get a job in order to get enough money to buy his mother a Mother's Day present. And in the end, all beaten and with no money, he's sitting on the porch of the house, talking to himself: "Yeah, like that'll work. I'll just tell her how much I love her, how much she means to me, etc." Somewhere in the middle of his monologue, his mother opens the door behind him and hears all the rest. Then she hugs him and says: "Aw, that's the only thing a mother ever wants from her child!"
To which Johnny says: "Oh, mamma! That's gonna make shopping for you this Christmas REALLY cheap!"
posted
Anybody ever read Frumpy the Clown? It only ran for two years, but it was my favorite comic.
One Sunday strip Frumpy and and Brad are walking through the park and a wizard appears, brags a little, and offers Frumpy his heart's desires. Frumpy asks for the first ABBA album on vinyl and a watermelon. There's no way to "tell" a comic, so you'll just have to trust me that it was hilarious.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:But I think that most of the grandiose thigns I would wish for (wealth, success, brilliance) either would only make me unhappy or are worth working for
Pick the two that you want the most and use your last wish to be happy. Duh.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
"First wish: have an unlimited number of wishes."
Okay, one is granted that wish. Doesn't mean any of them will come true. Quite the opposite since the brain has finite capacity. ::head explodes::
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Erm, A modest home, a small family, a good job. I find happiness in things like that. Not silly things like fame, power, wealth, etc.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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1. I wish I graduated high school yesterday with a 4.0 average and have already been accepted to every college whatsoever, but have decided not to go for (good) reasons beyond my control.
2. I wish I got married today to a beautiful, 5' 8 or 9", brunette woman with a great, harmonious personality to mine and a loving heart.
3. I wish Mountain Dew would release their Baja Blast pop in more places than Taco Bell.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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1. My selfish wish: Powers of flight, ala Superman. 2. My unselfish wish: Good health for everyone, within the limits of plausability. (ie, if you get stuck with a knife, you don't automagically heal up, your body will just be able to fight off infection.) 3. My silly wish: Hmmm. . . to be a really, really, really good cook.
[ September 27, 2004, 07:40 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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1) I wish I could speed up or slow down the passage of time, as in Treason 2) I if I spend a lot of time sped-up, it won't decrease my life span 3) I get to bestow fines or boons upon companies acccording to how pleased or displeased I am with their commercials (hint -- Enzyte, natural male enhancment would have alreay been fined millions upon millions of dollars)
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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aspectre, I thought we were talking about a situation in which your wishes would be fulfilled... If not, I don't really see a reason to play this *game*... Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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If it was possible for me to have any wish granted, I would wish for the same powers as the one granting my wish, with none of the restrictions.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
1) Wish that the Genie was free to do whatever he wanted. This, of course, would make him my life long pal and he'd follow me around all the time granting me wishes and such and we'd get a cartoon deal out of disney and I'd marry the cute princess with the tiger as a pet and....
2) Don't wish to be happy, healthy, and financially secure for the rest of your life. That is easilly granted, by shooting you in the back, right now.
3) I'd wish for enough money to quit my job so I could spend my time writing. The fame I could earn from that.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote: Wish that the Genie was free to do whatever he wanted. This, of course, would make him my life long pal and he'd follow me around all the time granting me wishes and such and we'd get a cartoon deal out of disney and I'd marry the cute princess with the tiger as a pet and....
If he's a nice genie. Or maybe he'd just leave and spend all his time feeding trolls on hatrack. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I learned my lesson from "The Monkey's Paw". No wishes for me.
Nathan, couldn't help but notice your wishes don't include any prospect of a long life. Good health until you die is easy if you die tomorrow. *points to monkey's paw*
posted
1. The ability to shapeshift, at will, into the form of any living being, while still retaining the knowledge of who and what I truly am, as well as the ability to shift back to my natural form at will.
2. The ability to, at will, teleport myself plus 500 lbs of living or nonliving matter in both time and space.
3. The ability to understand and produce all human forms of communication, spoken, written, and signed with perfect fluency, and (in the case of spoken language) with any accent I chose.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:1. The ability to shapeshift, at will, into the form of any living being, while still retaining the knowledge of who and what I truly am, as well as the ability to shift back to my natural form at will.
That's scary!
How would we know who was who and what was what?
Posts: 3771 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I'd know. Besides, it would help me to be able to assume an inconspicuous form when I was travelling to various points in time. There are too many time periods in which a white male who was only able to speak early 21st century English would be more than a little bit...conspicuous.
Plus, I'd enjoy seeing what it felt like to have a dolphin's body, or a cheeta's, or a hawk's.
Also, it would be very handy for consciously healing myself of wounds and such.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
1) I wish for a lifetime supply of fried Mozzerrella sticks
2) Fame. And like Blink 182 Fame. Infact... just make them all my next door neighbors and best friends.
3) The power go anywhere and do anything i want at all times. Or you can just give me all of Super Man's powers. Or the bat cave.
Posts: 529 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I doubt it Tammy. Are you thinking of misusing it the way, say, Uther Pendragon did, or something else?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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1) The ability to read anyone's mind. Think about it.. why wish for wealth, when you can just go to Vegas and win it.
2) Ability to teleport. That way its not an issue trying to get across the state to see Becky, or to go around the country to visit other Hatrackers.
3) To be an "above average" fencer. Fencing is one of the only sports I've ever known where a majority of its participants aim to be "average." I'd hate the responsibility of near-godlike fencing talent.. I'd have to, you know, practice a lot and compete nationally and such. I guess i could just teleport that extra 2 feet and suddenly stab someone who i was a safe distant away from moments before. Or maybe read their minds and predict every move and think of its counter before the other person even moves. Posts: 271 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
My three wishes would be for things that are more or less out of my control but that I deeply want.
1. No one in this world goes without basic necessities: Water, food, clothing, shelter, safety, medicine.
2. Everyone gets an education that includes literacy and is appropriate to the learning abiltities and talents they exhibits.
3. Universal language translators: no matter what language anyone spoke, they would be able to clearly understand what anyone was trying to communicate.
Posts: 438 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
You know, sticking in "ands" "as well" "except for" etc. into your wish to string more and more things together doesn't mean it still counts as one wish.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
1. Teleportation. 2. Lots of land i can have horses on, and the ability to build everything like i want it. 3. Hatrack as a state. Or a country. Whatever.
posted
"I thought we were talking about a situation in which your wishes would be fulfilled... If not, I don't really see a reason to play this *game*"
In this game, there are three wishes which are guaranteed to be fulfilled. I was merely pointing out that exactly how one phrases a guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wish can have extreme consequences. In this case, a first guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wish for an unlimited number of wishes/desires without further provisos on its fulfillment causes an attempt to fill a finite brain with infinite information/wishes, hence: ::head explodes::
Let's suppose that for your first guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wish, you wish for only a hundred wishes. Next thing you know, you have wishes/desires in your head that weren't there before. And your second guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wish is made for eg brussel sprouts, with the third guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wish made for eg anchovies. And you didn't even like brussel sprouts or anchovies before making that first guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wish for more wishes/desires. And you still don't like them cuz you didn't wish to like them. You've just wasted three guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wishes on stuff you don't even want. And still have 97 unfulfilled wishes/desires nagging at your sense of success/failure.
Would you want every wish to come true? Never been so annoyed by someone that you wished them harm? but only for that moment? and only because you know that your wish wouldn't actually harm them? Need a "magic"word/ritual to prevent wishes from being fulfilled unless you truly desire them to be fulfilled. A changing password/ritual lest saying that word, doing that ritual becomes reflexive.
Okay, suppose you phrase the guaranteed-to-be-fulfilled-wishes correctly. Then you wish to be the world's fastest runner. How would riding a wish be different from riding a motorcycle? Would you feel any more successful outrunning other competitors than you would if you beat them using a motorcycle? Suppose you wished that a heart throb loved you. Would you feel any more loved knowing that they didn't have a choice in the matter?
Even "Pick the two that you want the most and use your last wish to be happy." has undesirable consequences. Would you really want to be happy when eg your puppy got run over by a car? etc...
Be careful what you wish for, especially if you know that your wish will come true.
posted
I repeat: 1. Platter of sushi 2. Cup o' tea 3. Good book
I can get the rest myself. And for the large worldwide wishes, in the (paraphrased) words of a Weatherwax, it doesn't really help that much. Better to work to change the people.
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