When given a little bit of quiet and left to my own devices (such as while flying), I think about things like what would I wish for if a genie should swoop down and offer me one wish (no wishing for more wishes), and one wish only. At first, I assumed I'd be a bit altruistic. After all, what's the point in having wishes if we can't put them to good use?
Then I decided that this is my fantasy life we're talking about so I would instead wish for something that is probably beyond the realm of possible. That was a little more challenging, but I finally made a decision: 24 hours. More precisely, 24 hours without consequence; 24 hours in which I could do anything I wanted without the effects, for ill or for good, lasting beyond my 24 hours.
Then, of course, came the thinking about what I'd do during that 24 hours.
Here, in no particular order, is a list of 25 possibilities. Some are questionable, a few others are illegal, and many are just in very poor taste.
Note: my family is not included in any of these--they can pick their own 25 things should they choose the same wish.
Join the circus and learn to walk the tightrope
Skydive
Tell only lies
Borrow a monkey for the day
Sing instead of talk
Eat nothing but bread, cheese and butter
Act my age
Drink scotch and smoke cigarettes
Spend a few hours in Italy
Kiss someone dangerous
Buy tabloid magazines and tuck them into random strangers' shopping bags
Shoplift excellent shoes
Drive a cab in NYC
Take a train to an unknown destination and lose the return ticket
Dance instead of walk
Embrace the impossible
Speak only truth
Wear tacky clothes intended for a much younger woman
Speak in bad foreign accents while wearing mom jeans and white sneakers
Flirt with everybody (especially old people)
Steal books from the library
Buy dinner for 8 strangers
Swim in the Arctic Ocean
Windsurf
Dig for dinosaur bones
This is fantasy not reality so sure, most of these are beyond my personal realm of probable. But maybe not all of them--and isn't that the point of an exercise like this? A few minutes of fancy just might lead to a new path (like joining the circus) or a refined goal (dinner with 8 strangers? Intriguing). Entertaining the impossible gives us the opportunity to illuminate what is possible. It may also be nothing more than a half hour's quiet entertainment; what we make of our wishes is, simply, up to us.
WOwsers! What fun... Although you could do the dancing and singing ones without any repercussions right now! :) And I think you should!
ReplyDelete"eat nothing but bread, cheese, and butter"
ReplyDeleteYUM! Except thats not much of a fantasy in my life. :)
Um, you could do many of these things. Why not go for it? It's a bucket list of sorts. Keep circus at the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteSadly, my don't-look-like-a-fool-in-public phobia is such that I wouldn't do a lot of these without the promise of erasure.
ReplyDeleteSecond to that phobia is my fear of misreading cues. I'm looking forward to being a slightly dotty old lady who has magically lost these inhibitors.