Three Wishes

[Trakx]

Digging through your grandma's attic, you find yourself a part of a cliche story where you find an old brass lamp. You rub the dust off of it, as you naturally would, and out bursts a stream of smoke and a genie comes before you!

"You have three wishes. What would you wish for?"

Since there is no way of telling this, let me say in this hypothetical situation that you know this isn't the evil, twist-your-words sort of genie.

What three wishes would you wish for?

Note: I think the common Genie rules are that you cannot wish for more wishes, or have "and"'s in your wish.

[Tommy Brownell]

Hm.

Lemme get back to you on that.

[silverlion]

I'd wish to be free of the illness that plagues me.

I'd wish to be able to put my ideas forward in ways that help me better my lot in life even if it takes hard work behind them.


I'd wish no one else had to suffer the illness I suffer either.

[Trakx]

I would apologize for prying, but since you're almost open about it...

What is your illness?

[Tommy Brownell]

1. Cancer would cease to exist.

2. I would generate a more than comfortable living in one of my chosen pursuits, be it wrestling or writing.

3. I would live to see my son be a man.

[silverlion]

trakx said:

I would apologize for prying, but since you're almost open about it...

What is your illness?

Well I'm diagnosed Bi-polar, but its really depression. I don't have manic episodes. (they call it hypomanic, which is--bipolar but with manic episodes so mild as to be unnoticeable--ie, a manic episode for me is depressed, a low non-manic is suicidal.)

I on a daily basis fight suicidal levels of depression (and suicidal ideation.) medication and counseling have not impacted it in the least..
It's not ALWAYS been that way, only the last two years..

It's like being routinely tortured inside and invisible jail, by unseen tormenters to most people--they treat it often as "imaginary", when its as real as someones broken arm. And most peoples advice to the depressed is like telling someone who is paralyzed to stop being lazy and get up and walk--and I've heard advice that borders on that in many "helpful" terms and ways.

Let's just say that very few have truly helpful, useful, advice for someone whose truly suffering severe depression. (and that often includes other depressives.)


I can tell you what hell is like, in more than euphemistic terms.

[Trakx]

I'm sorry to hear that, Tim. No offense (truly), but I imagined you to have some sort of severe disease that has left you bedridden. Not to downplay depression.

I guess I'm the only one who would use his wishes for more selfish means.

I'd have to put more thought into two of my wishes, but the first one sounds easy enough:

"I wish to have the powers of the genie, without the restrictions."

[silverlion]

You'd be surprised how close it is Nathan.
Very very close.
And it is an illness, just as real as disease, just outside of my control as one.

[Trakx]

Let's assume that disease was one of Nature's ways of controlling population. Hypothetically, if you were presented with the option to eliminate all forms of death causing disease, but you had to replace it with another death-causing event, would you leave it alone or come up with something? Such as, and I hate to sound the monster, but one option may be to have a higher rate of miscarriages and still births - causing deaths before they're even born.

[silverlion]

Just limit peoples fertility, if you have to control birth rate.
Seriously start at the source.

[Trakx]

silverlion said:

Just limit peoples fertility, if you have to control birth rate.
Seriously start at the source.

The kicker was that by people no longer dying of disease, they now die of something else. I'm suggesting they die just before they're born.

You're suggesting they don't die at all. Of course, that would be preferred, but again - they have to die of something else.

[Tommy Brownell]

Well, he's actually suggesting that you control the population before it becomes a problem.

[Trakx]

Before it becomes a problem?

I was saying that if people had to die, and you didn't want them to die of disease, what would you then have them die of?

Having people have a harder time reproducing isn't the death of anyone.

[Tommy Brownell]

No...but people will still die of violence and old age...limiting reproduction allows "death" to catch up with "life"...

[stormangel]

Silverlion, you aren't the only bi-polar here. I too am one. On Wikipedia I found an interesting list of famous people who have or may have shared our illness. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_believed_to_have_been_affected_by_bipolar_disorder

You probably switch between both sides and just don't notice the hypomania. I'm that same, but those around me tell me they see it, and I have a habit to ignore them when they try to tell me they say. It's just easier to self-notice when you are down in the dumps. About the best I can say is that it does gety easier to deal with in time, if you have a good support system to help you on your off-days.

As for wishes...

1. Man would work together more and overcome their own differences to fix world problems. Sometimes society's biggest failing is our own egos.
2. My 2 children to grow up happy and healthy to live better lives than I have. That should be any parents wish, no matter how well-off they are.
3. To grow as a human being enough to let my stregnths carry me when my weaknesses like my bi-polar make me feel like the world is a terrible terrible place.