Writing Club Today

My submission at Writing Club today -

The Fry

“If wishes were fishes we’d all have a fry.” I can remember my mom saying this to me several times when I was a child. Only now as I reflect do I realize I must have said a lot of I wish to her and that my wishes were all material or surface wishes. Nothing notable or goodly to serve all of humanity, I wished for things and ways to feed my ego.

I remember when our family drove to Florida to retrieve the older, smaller travel trailer my grandparents were vacationing in and bring it home we passed through Georgia. It was my first time seeing plantations and the large manses that commanded the end of the tree- lined lane. I was in love. I wanted to live on a plantation. I’m sure I did a lot of I wishing on that trip. My parents laughed and scoffed at my dream and in particular did not care for my wish to have a Guest House for the times that they would come to visit. They seemed to be insulted by that, thinking they were relegated to the back house and not the main house. Even today I still think this is the best way to visit relatives, but my parents never let me forget that wish.

Then there was the time in Junior High when I wished for a boyfriend. In my mind he had to be perfect and with nary a thought that I didn’t fall into that category.  Jimmy, who came to visit his cousins next door, was my age and I kind of thought he liked me.  He was cute, but one day I heard him struggling to read and I decided he was not a good candidate for a boyfriend nor husband and eventually father. My reasoning was if he struggled to read, who would be able to read the comics to our kids? So poor Jimmy got crossed off my wish list.

Always, always, always did I wish for clothes. Better clothes, Seventeen Magazine style clothes. Brand names were just beginning to be important to teenage girls and I so desperately wanted a Bobbie Brooks outfit. There was no way my family could afford the cute skirt and sweater ensembles and even if I had enough babysitting money I wouldn’t have allowed myself the splurge on such extravagance. My family was very frugal with money, especially on such luxuries as clothes that matched and had a price tag equal to three outfits at JC Penney. This wish for name brand clothing item has stayed with me for years and I can recall several years ago when my husband and I were in Walmart he saw a Bobbie Brooks sign and told me at last I could buy my Bobbie Brooks. Somehow it just wasn’t quite the same.

My wishes in college changed a little from the superficial to become a bit more realistic and practical. Even though I spend many a time wishing for the cute boy at the bar to ask me out or notice me, I did wish for my cousin to come home safely from Vietnam and I did wish for peace. I began to think outside my self and view the role I played in the universe.

And when I was married with small children I had so many wishes, but mostly all for them. I wished and I hoped that I would be the kind of parent they needed to grow and mature into strong, healthy adults. I wished for them everything I had not. However when my daughter, at the age of seven asked me for Esprit clothes, her Bobbie Brooks, I did not grant her wish either.

I also had my material wishes too. In each of our first two homes both my husband and I wished for just three more feet added to each room and we felt that would be just right. Or we wished for just one hundred dollars and how that could help us over the very tight edge we seemed to dangle on so precariously.

And now. Now I still have those days of wanting and wishing for what I think is not attainable in the material world, but in reality I could make it a priority and work for it and save for it and it could be mine. Maybe I really don’t want it that badly. I know I certainly don’t need it.

 But most of my wishes now are for deeper, more meaningful desires of a life well led, of a life well lived; not only for myself, but my family and for everyone I encounter. And I think this is the true evolution we make in our life time, some of us getting there sooner than others; that we move from thinking and wishing and wanting only for one, to hoping and praying for all. I may have started out yearning to have something that I probably knew I should not, to now appreciating every wish granted or declined. For in maturity we know there is a lesson in every moment. Maybe wishing is not all about attaining the goal, but the process of thoughts to determine focus and priority and what matters most in life. Maybe it’s having the fish and enjoying the fry.