Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. (Aristotle)
Imagine a genie sprung from his lamp, ready to grant one magic wish. Not three like there are in fairy tales. Three give space for creative answers and tricks. This genie is a tad stingy.
When I was young, I would have asked for either fame or fortune without thinking about it. Heck, at sixteen I could have wasted this moment thinking I wanted a boyfriend. But I’m now officially a senior citizen who has been married for a looooong time. And happy about that.
“How about world peace?”
He shakes his head. “Hey, I’m a genie! Not the creator of the universe. Take it easy, will you? I said I could grant you a wish. Jeesh!” He folds his arms across his chest and gets that insulted genie look, a pathetic sight.
One wish. “Health sounds good. Actually, it sounds great.”
The genie smiles and begins to twitch up my wish.
“Nah, that could go bad again. What about . . .?”
He gives me his biggest impatient genie expression. Not much better than an insulted genie look.
“I got it. I got it! Genie, I want wisdom.”
He looks at me like I have three heads and four noses. “I give up. You can’t get that from me. You have to earn that on your own. Hard work. Years of hard work! See both sides of everything. Take the long road. Listening. Hard knocks. You have to know who you are first, accept, grow. Forget it.”
With that the genie goes back into the lamp. In the smallest voice I hear, “I’ll wait for someone with smaller vision and a little more ego.”
At my feet is a crumpled dollar bill. “Hey,” the tiny voice inside the lamp continues, “It’s against the Genie Union to go without leaving something.”
terrypetersen 