[Dean's World] Ron Coleman: Three wishes

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Posted by Ron Coleman:
Three wishes
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1170796923.shtml


   You get them. They're "local" wishes, though. You can't wish for
   global, "impossible" things like world peace, the eradication of
   disease, or a Chicago Cubs World Series. No immortality. Also, no
   untold riches. This genie is a piker. And they have to be wishes for
   you, directly. I know you love your spouse and your kids and Maw and
   Paw but they have to find their own genies.

   So what do you ask for?

   I raise the question because I have always known that if I could have
   that kind of selfish three-wishes genie, one of them would be to be
   able to play the piano. Not like a concert pianist -- just to make
   music competently with a piano. Play by ear, and off sheet music.
   Something reminded me of that today, how happy it would make me to be
   able to do this.

   The other two?

   I used to think I'd like to be able to eat anything I wanted without
   having to worry about the health effect on me, but now I understand
   that pleasure from physical sensation is meaningless (and in essence
   pleasure-less) without refraining from the sensation as well. But I
   would turn this inclination into a wish to not have to worry about my
   weight at all and to be, say, a healthy 178 pounds (a pound less than
   when I got married and, er, more than a few more than I am today) for
   the rest of the way.

   Wish number three? Let me think about it. I think just the piano one
   would make me very happy. I might wish just for the ability to know
   what I should really do with the rest of my life. I don't even need
   the genie to set me up -- I want to accomplish it, earn it, and I
   believe with God's help I can do almost anything within certain broad
   categories (i.e., not ones involving athletic ability or integers) but
   I would sure like to know the direction I should be focusing on. If
   the answer were that I am already headed the right way, why, knowing
   that would be an incredible gift, too.

   Yes, if a slim, piano-playing me had all that, what else would I need
   for myself?