Three Wishes
If you could make three wishes, what would they be?
I started thinking about this partly because of the Split Worlds books, where the protagonist, Cathy, is granted three wishes and wastes two of them almost immediately. The third, turns out to be the truly defining moment for the character in one of those 'wishes versus work' sorts of ways that are so prevalent in modern fairy tales.Admittedly I finished reading those a couple of weeks ago and I've only just throught of doing this post... the wheels of my brain must grind slow.
The other thing that made me wonder is the Museum of Curiousities, the BBC radio show that's currently on (and had both Amanda Palmer and Andrew O'Neill on in a brilliant episode, if you can find it have a listen). It prompted me to remember that both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman contributing devices concerning time, or the lack of it.
That's my starting point I have to admit: I wish I had more time. In between work, commuting and all the rest of it, time seems to be in short supply especially as it looks like I may have to spend more time at work and commuting (honestly Birmingham's roads just get stupid around this time of year, commutes stretch up to over an hour some mornings). Losing an hour to a long commute (as has happened twice this week) sends me into a tizz, how can I claw back the time? It means working late, that means getting back home late and then playing catch up with other things. It seems to have a knock on effect, I honestly thought, and hoped, it was Thursday today.
Time is a sort of currency in itself, "the minute in your pocket" (as Terry Pratchett's put it) has value whether you acknowledge it or not. Weirdly it seems to operate in direct opposition to the amount of money you earn: the more you earn the less time you have (well officially) and vice versa. Perhaps that's why, at heart, we don't value time as a currency, you can't buy anything with it but hard work, dreams and good memories.
Related to this is wish number 2: I wish I had more energy. I want to write in the evenings and at weekends, but often I feel so tired out that all I can do is sit and stare at the 'net for a while. It's got better than it was in the past, I get something written everyday these days, even if its only a slice of fiction rather than the full 2000 words I want to reach. All the same, I hate the feeling that after a day's work I'm effectively useless, good for nothing but reading and listening to the radio (this is one of my problems with the way capitalism is constructed, it seems to me that by insisting on long hours, unless you can express yourself via your work, you're not likely to because you'll be too tired. There's a reason why television and the internet are so popular, you don't have to go out to use them and they don't really require much effort).
I really need to look at the way I eat and work things out to make sure I get more energy in the evenings. Perhaps doing some sort of stretching exercise would help? I admit I shy away from exercise, ironically because it always seems to be a case of the 'you need to do at least twenty minutes', which with warm ups, cool downs and so on, transforms into... over an hour, which doesn't fit my lifestyle (up at 6.00, out of the door before 7.30, out of work at 5.00, home to cook by 6.00 and the day being done and dusted by 7.30 or 8.00 so I can write or work on my coursework and in bed by 11.00).
My third wish would be...for my wife to be pain free and healthy.
Of course those are sensible wishes (and arguably in reverse order now that I think about it). My silly wishes would probably be quite different - I just can't think of anything at the moment.
What would yours be?
I started thinking about this partly because of the Split Worlds books, where the protagonist, Cathy, is granted three wishes and wastes two of them almost immediately. The third, turns out to be the truly defining moment for the character in one of those 'wishes versus work' sorts of ways that are so prevalent in modern fairy tales.Admittedly I finished reading those a couple of weeks ago and I've only just throught of doing this post... the wheels of my brain must grind slow.
The other thing that made me wonder is the Museum of Curiousities, the BBC radio show that's currently on (and had both Amanda Palmer and Andrew O'Neill on in a brilliant episode, if you can find it have a listen). It prompted me to remember that both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman contributing devices concerning time, or the lack of it.
That's my starting point I have to admit: I wish I had more time. In between work, commuting and all the rest of it, time seems to be in short supply especially as it looks like I may have to spend more time at work and commuting (honestly Birmingham's roads just get stupid around this time of year, commutes stretch up to over an hour some mornings). Losing an hour to a long commute (as has happened twice this week) sends me into a tizz, how can I claw back the time? It means working late, that means getting back home late and then playing catch up with other things. It seems to have a knock on effect, I honestly thought, and hoped, it was Thursday today.
Time is a sort of currency in itself, "the minute in your pocket" (as Terry Pratchett's put it) has value whether you acknowledge it or not. Weirdly it seems to operate in direct opposition to the amount of money you earn: the more you earn the less time you have (well officially) and vice versa. Perhaps that's why, at heart, we don't value time as a currency, you can't buy anything with it but hard work, dreams and good memories.
Related to this is wish number 2: I wish I had more energy. I want to write in the evenings and at weekends, but often I feel so tired out that all I can do is sit and stare at the 'net for a while. It's got better than it was in the past, I get something written everyday these days, even if its only a slice of fiction rather than the full 2000 words I want to reach. All the same, I hate the feeling that after a day's work I'm effectively useless, good for nothing but reading and listening to the radio (this is one of my problems with the way capitalism is constructed, it seems to me that by insisting on long hours, unless you can express yourself via your work, you're not likely to because you'll be too tired. There's a reason why television and the internet are so popular, you don't have to go out to use them and they don't really require much effort).
I really need to look at the way I eat and work things out to make sure I get more energy in the evenings. Perhaps doing some sort of stretching exercise would help? I admit I shy away from exercise, ironically because it always seems to be a case of the 'you need to do at least twenty minutes', which with warm ups, cool downs and so on, transforms into... over an hour, which doesn't fit my lifestyle (up at 6.00, out of the door before 7.30, out of work at 5.00, home to cook by 6.00 and the day being done and dusted by 7.30 or 8.00 so I can write or work on my coursework and in bed by 11.00).
My third wish would be...for my wife to be pain free and healthy.
Of course those are sensible wishes (and arguably in reverse order now that I think about it). My silly wishes would probably be quite different - I just can't think of anything at the moment.
What would yours be?
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