Cogito ergo scribo

I mentioned in yesterday's post that 贝 and i talked about an interesting, or rather, an old and silly topic the night before -- the oh-so-familiar hypothetical question: "what would you wish for if you were given three wishes?"

I couldn't remember how we got into this subject but his answer had me thinking about the wishes and hope of people. 贝 said all he needed was just one wish and i could take the other two. He would just wish for 20 million US dollars. He said this wish itself would have been sufficient for him to realize other things that he has always hoped for, and thus there wasn't a need for the other two wishes anymore.

贝 is not a moneygrubber but he has this strong belief that most, if not all, problems in life can be resolved with wealth. Try asking him question like "do you think money can buy love / happiness / health ... ?" and don't be surprised that his reply is "yes". He's not a mercenary person, far from it actually. I would say this is just his pragmatic view of life.

As for me, i really wondered if two wishes were enough. I may wanna wish that i could be more talented in music, drawing, or writing; or i may wish that i could be prettier, smarter, or more knowledgeable. Then i realized that i didn't seem to be too happy about myself and there were many aspects of me that i hoped to be better. Why did i see myself in such lights? Do i have a low self-esteem, or is that a reflection of my discontentment with life? Perhaps i'm just a greedy person who wants a lot out of life and out of myself.

I asked 贝 if i could wish for my dad to have never been stricken by cancer and died. He said i should never wish for something that would change the past. If my dad had been well and alive, my life would have been totally different. I might not have met 贝 and be with him today. There might be many things in the past that i hoped they had or had not happened, but 贝 was definitely one of the best things that could have happened in my life and i wouldn't wanna change it at all, not even a bit.

I guess no matter how big or small our wishes are, the crux of all things is to always hope for the future and not the past. We should wish for better things to happen tomorrow and not for the unpleasant things to have never happened yesterday. And that, i believe, is the difference between hope and regret.