When the genie offers me my wishes, I’ll wish to wake up miserable but go to sleep happy. Every day like a life compressed will be an adventure of discovery and fulfillment. The other wishes you can keep, to fix the world if you know how, I’m not afraid. My wish will insulate me from your good intentions. I’ll sleep well, by contract. The genie, of course, sleeps best. And gets the last laugh. Between the rubbings of the lamp, she has a thousand years to solve the riddle of each desire. However crafty my wish may seem, she’ll grant it only technically, as everyone knows, grant but not grant it. In good time, I’ll suffer for sloppy thinking. She’ll make me a junky, for instance, happy for one minute a day. Suppose I wish for love: my wife changes so much in a year I’m already falling in love with a stranger, sleeping with a different woman every night. Suppose I wish for things: I own more now than most humans have ever owned. It wouldn’t even challenge the genie, with all her resources, to make me the richest man among the destitute of a filthy, desperate age. The second man owned half the world, for one example, but he couldn’t start a fire, and his bed was cold. No, when I’m offered my chance, I’ll let the world be, fix my eyes, and wish for a certain perspective. There are times, I think, when he’s been too long from home, a man will fantasize making love to his own wife, in his own bed. That’s fantasy. From now on, I’m that man, on a mission to Mars, gazing at the earth as it is. How exotic my wife seems from this distance, how like a genie’s dream.
Copyright ©1999-2006 David Hodges
Very Short Novels 
9 comments
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November 6, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Jason
Cool perspective! yeah i’m all for changing out point of view and how we see the world around us. I also wrote a little about that, and i really like the topic of perspective. I’d still rather wake up joyful and go to bed joyful, with a real feeling of inner peace. Nice thought provoking post on wishes, i like it
As your genie, I could do that for you, but oh, your waking hours would be such torment! Be careful how you wish! Thanks for stopping by and leaving your insightful comment, Jason. I recommend your site to others. Come back and tell my readers how to find your “perspective” post.
–David
November 6, 2006 at 9:43 pm
litlove
Lucky wife to be fantasized about in that way. Perhaps you’ll write this from her perspective too, one day?
Beautiful idea, litlove.
–David
November 7, 2006 at 1:59 pm
red dirt girl
What a lovely feeling to see sameness and fall in love with it all over again…….from a different angle………without renewal, life would be stagnant indeed. Another excellent post, D. (and yes litlove IS correct…….lucky woman!)
-red dirt girl
This happens, doesn’t it? I didn’t make it up? You just wake up one day and then wake up again?
–David
November 7, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Maliha
Salamaat/Peace,
How do you do it Dave? Brevity has always been my weak point (i was just celebrating writing a short story in one installment)…awesome technique and I am really enjoying reading through them!
We all have our weaknesses, I more than most. This is all I can do.
–David
November 7, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Jeff
David: Dropped in to read some of your work. Thanks for coming to DFA writes. These high school student writers are amazing. I think they will be enriched if they discover you. We are new to blogging. We are 30 minute writing class . Jeff
I love the idea of a 30-minute time limit. These little pieces of mine sometimes take a week or more.
–David
November 7, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Ergo
I’m sorry this is off topic, but I am intrigued as to how you stumbled upon my blog. And thanks for your nice words there… I appreciate it. 🙂
I thought I mentioned in my comment you’ve made the list of today’s Fastest Growing Blogs on WordPress. That’s where I found you. Some of us go looking.
–David
November 8, 2006 at 2:03 am
bluepainkiller
Your words are very interesting and reflective. Thank you for the comment.
Thank you for yours.
–David
November 9, 2006 at 6:23 am
Jason
*Poof* Here is how to get to one of my perspective posts. Check out my blog and type in “perspective” in the search bar. That should bring up two posts, the one titled with Perspective in it is the one i mean to point to. O’ and thanks for recommending me. i’m adding you to my blog roll so more can visit your blog.
Poof. That’s good. I remember rubbing the lamp to summon you. Thank you for the link.
–David
November 9, 2006 at 10:09 pm
caveblogem
About six or seven years ago Scott Adams, the guy who writes/draws the Dilbert cartoons, came out with this book called The Dilbert Future. It is a collection of his cartoons but there is additional stuff in it, particularly towards the end, where he launches into some really weird ways of looking at the world (this might interest Jason, as well). One of the things he talks about is how weird our perceptions of time and luck are. He talks about some experiments of scientists and some of his own where visioning the immediate future, like affirmations but more visual and concrete than that, can change the future, almost like making wishes come true. And I have been able to do this to a very limited extent the same way you talk about in this story. It’s genuinely amazing. Nice story, David.
I know I can make myself hungry. But I can also make a meal of a handful of trail mix.
–David