Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.
One Wish Now, or Three In Ten?
By Patricia Morris
Patricia’s response to the writing prompt: Would you rather have one wish granted today, or three wishes granted ten years from now?
Given that my dear friend of forty years died last week after a fast and furious 6-week illness, I will take my one wish today, please. No waiting for ten years for anything anymore. There are no ten years guaranteed, especially when, in ten years, I will be six months shy of 70 years old. That is a shocking thing to write, but that is my reality.
Having only one wish, the pressure is on. To make it the “right” wish, the “best” wish, the “greatest good for the greatest number” wish. I could game it. I could make my one wish be to have one wish granted annually for the rest of my life. Leave it to the dormant lawyer brain to spring to life and offer up that one.
I could wish to know when and how I will die. But no, I couldn’t do that and do away with the fundamental mystery of life. Then I would probably spend the rest of my days fixated on that moment and drain the life out of life.
I might wish to end and reverse global warming. A wish to repair all the environmental damage that humankind has wrought and then, once repaired, for earth’s ecology to hold steady. I like this wish, but I can’t help wondering about unintended consequences. It violates the scientific fact that nothing holds steady. That even seemingly solid mountains are moving, that friends come and go, that I will come and go. That stars, made up of the same stuff as you and I, burst into life and flame into death. I wouldn’t wish for it to be any other way.
Patricia Morris’s lawyer brain went dormant decades ago, and she tries to keep it that way when she writes for fun, as she does on Monday nights at Marlene Cullen’s and Susan Bono’s Jumpstart Writing Workshops. Her writing has appeared in Rand McNally’s Vacation America, the Ultimate Road Atlas and The Write Spot: Possibilities and The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year, both edited by Marlene Cullen. The Write Spot books available at Amazon, Book Passage (Corte Madera), and Gallery Books (Mendocino).
Patricia Morris will be a featured presenter at Writers Forum on July 29, 2021 at 6 pm.
