Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

I don't know what's worse: sleeping in too late or getting woken up by a phone call offering me an assignment. I do know what's worse than that, though. It's having the assignment get canceled because of forces beyond your control.

What surprised me the most was how late I had slept in, considering I'd gotten to bed earlier than I had been the last few days. I guess my body was trying to catch up. Well, that's not allowed in this universe.

But I'm stuck at about six pounds to lose and have been since my birthday. I'm hoping to get past this plateau, because fall weather is coming, and there's little likelihood that all my fall clothes from last year will still work.

Sometimes gradual change is difficult to accept. I want results faster, to see my successes as soon as I work towards achieving them. It's hard when change is incremental and I want it to be astounding.

I'm not alone in this. I'm sure most people feel the same way, wishing we could make things happen just by thinking them. But of course, if you could, your neighbor could and your best friend as well as your worst enemy. Life could get weird.

All the women would immediately go up a couple cup sizes (not always because they wanted to), and the guys, well, they might have to buy new pants.

That noisy dog down the street might lose his ability to bark, but if the dog gets his wish he'll gain the ability to jump the fence, so watch out.

Everybody would be rich, and then of course, money would mean nothing. But of course, it doesn't anyway.

We'd be living in a world of super heroes, where people could shift time, instantly transport from place to place, leap tall buildings, find a parking spot. It would be incredible.

Of course, it could be annoying, not knowing whether someone can read your mind or whether there's someone invisible in the room. But I guess we'd get used to that. It would become the new normal.

One of the problems we would have, in a world full of immortals, which no doubt we would all be, who are all perennially 26 or whatever age they prefer, there's the ethical dilemma about what to do about children. Should we have them? And how many? How long could the Earth support us all?

I'm sure with our new abilities we'd find some way around this. Sky cities would be possible, and we could probably eliminate the need to eat if we wanted to, and only eat for pleasure.

Of course, this utopic vision assumes everyone wants good things. What about those who don't, those who want nothing better than to see their enemies roasted on a spit? Would we have to get spit-roasting insurance, or how would that work out?

In a world full of beautiful immortals, some of whom may or may not be evil, wouldn't it get boring? Would some people make themselves ugly just to be interesting?

And what if someone else's wish interferes with your own? Would you suddenly find yourself dating that guy you turned down in high school? And would he mind that you're already married to Johnny Depp?

Just how many wives would Johnny Depp have? Probably as many as Pamela Anderson would have husbands. She would also be miraculously cured of Hep C.

Of course, in this perfect world, how could we accept anything we see? How could we know if it's real or just created by somebody's thoughts? But again, how do we know that anyway?

After all, a good portion of reality is shaped by our perceptions. Try encountering a mirror unexpectedly and see if the person in there isn't more attractive than the person you see every morning brushing your teeth.

If your reaction is, "My God, what is that person wearing," it's time to reevaluate your wardrobe.

But we're already subject to the needs and desires of others. I, for example, am walking my dog because she wants me to. Although in her perfect world, I would walk her more frequently, and everybody she knows and likes would all live together in a big house, and none of us would ever leave to go to work or watch a movie.

So I guess there are drawbacks to a world where we can make things happen simply by thinking about them. But if only we could be heroes just for one day.

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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