One of the ghost stories that stuck with me from childhood was The Monkey’s Paw. It’s the story of a well-intentioned wish gone horribly wrong. I’ve read other such stories that also send a twisting shock back on the wisher in one form or another. Once, when asked what I would wish for if I could have any wish, I thought a good one would be to have back everything I had ever mislaid or lost or had stolen from me. The friend who asked me the question, upon hearing my answer, said something that made me stop and shudder, just like when I read The Monkey’s Paw: “You should be careful what you wish for…what if it all landed on top of you when it arrived?”
You have to qualify your wishes.
It’s probably best if you have a lawyer go through your wish with a fine-toothed comb, making sure that every contingency has been taken into account.
“Everything I ever mislaid or forgot or lost or had stolen from me or was borrowed and never returned, excepting those things that I didn’t want back anyway and never longed to have found or back again, and nothing that I would consider garbage now, and not the things I deliberately dropped or threw away, except the ones I regretted later, and make sure they are set down somewhere where they won’t hurt anyone, and are easily accessible, and protected, and ad nauseum infinitum…”
Even the genie qualifies the wishes that Aladdin is allowed to make, in the Disney movie: “No bringing people back from the dead, no making anyone fall in love with anyone else, etc.” I think it’s probably against the 3-wishes law to use one of your wishes to wish for 3 more wishes too, sadly.
This past month, since I started my new job, there has been a niggling sort of feeling that has continued to grow as the weeks passed that things aren’t quite right, that they’re not moving quite fast enough, that I’m not really being given enough to do and that has led to a sad little sense of discontent with what, by all rights, should be a great job that no one could possibly complain about. Yesterday, John and Simone arrived and at one point we were talking about how things were going and I said I wished it would speed up a little, that it had been a little too slow of a start for my taste.
This morning, when I got in to work, there were 25 emails waiting for me with details for 3 urgent projects (advertisement layouts! woo!) that need to be done by next week. 🙂 A wish come true! With no disclaimers! Yay!
Hippity Happity Puppity Big-Bad-30th Birthday Wishes to wruf!
Really Good Writing Out There Right Now: Dead Bird by Verian Thomas (Go buy it right now!)
Edited to add It gets better! I couldn’t go downstairs for Friday fika because I’m waiting for a telephone call and so I wished someone would bring me back up a pastry, and Francois not only brought me back up a Coke and a vanilla heart, he brought me TWO. 😀