There are a million reasons not to check your mailbox.
The number one reason is that there’s never anything good in there. I mean, really—what’s the point of sending me all this junk that I’m just going to throw away? I don’t care about your credit card offers or discount coupons. We’re killing trees for this, aren’t we?
The second reason is that you might accidentally get sent something that you don’t want in the slightest, like a package of cocaine or anthrax that—somehow, some way—got sent to the wrong address. This is exactly the type of thing that would happen to an unlucky fool like me.
The third reason is that you might receive a wedding invitation, which at first seems exciting and fun, but quickly turns into something you’ll end up spending several hundred to a few thousand dollars on. How badly do the happy couple want me at their destination wedding on the Amalfi Coast? And what about that new china set? Do they want it badly enough to push me into credit card debt? (I’m only joking, of course—you better invite me to your wedding. The only thing stronger than the fear of financial peril is the fear of missing out).
The fourth reason is that there’s really only one thing that I would be interested in receiving: a handwritten letter or postcard from a friend or loved one, and sadly, I’ve only received one postcard in my entire life. The medium is dead; we crave efficiency nowadays.
But despite all of this, I decided to check my mailbox this morning, as one does, an inevitable duty of our wonderful life on earth, and I found that there was a note inside my mailbox. It read:
11.11.24
At 11:11pm tonight, make a wish
And it will come true
Now here’s the tricky part—I’ve lived long enough to know that wishmaking is a matter of serendipity, coincidence, and perhaps a bit of dumb luck. For example: when you read a fortune cookie, you either immediately sense that the cookie you just cracked open was made specifically for you—a perfect alignment of universal forces working in tandem to deliver that message to you—or you feel, just as strongly, that it somehow fell into the wrong hands and that the little words on the paper could absolutely not have been meant for you. We always assign meaning to these things after the fact, depending on how much we do or don’t want something to happen.
But nevertheless, I’ve been plagued all day, thinking to myself—what will I wish for?
At 11:10pm tonight, in the 60 seconds leading up to my big decision, I’ll be in a desperate panic, racking my brain about which wish I want to come true. Every moment leading up to 11:11pm will be an exercise in feverish chaos and indecision, the agonizing weight of choice stretched in a million different directions and possibilities.
We often feel boxed in, don’t we? But when asked, point blank, what you want to happen, the infinite options available suddenly become quite overwhelming.
Most people just wish for the first thing that comes to mind, which is maybe the best way of going about it.
But if you could have just one wish come true, tonight at 11:11pm, what would you want it to be?
Have faith in your dreams, and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true
—“A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Cinderella
There are a million reasons not to check your mailbox.
The number one reason is that there’s never anything good in there. I mean, really—what’s the point of sending me all this junk that I’m just going to throw away? I don’t care about your credit card offers or discount coupons. We’re killing trees for this, aren’t we?
The second reason is that you might accidentally get sent something that you don’t want in the slightest, like a package of cocaine or anthrax that—somehow, some way—got sent to the wrong address. This is exactly the type of thing that would happen to an unlucky fool like me.
The third reason is that you might receive a wedding invitation, which at first seems exciting and fun, but quickly turns into something you’ll end up spending several hundred to a few thousand dollars on. How badly do the happy couple want me at their destination wedding on the Amalfi Coast? And what about that new china set? Do they want it badly enough to push me into credit card debt? (I’m only joking, of course—you better invite me to your wedding. The only thing stronger than the fear of financial peril is the fear of missing out).
The fourth reason is that there’s really only one thing that I would be interested in receiving: a handwritten letter or postcard from a friend or loved one, and sadly, I’ve only received one postcard in my entire life. The medium is dead; we crave efficiency nowadays.
But despite all of this, I decided to check my mailbox this morning, as one does, an inevitable duty of our wonderful life on earth, and I found that there was a note inside my mailbox. It read:
11.11.24
At 11:11pm tonight, make a wish
And it will come true
Now here’s the tricky part—I’ve lived long enough to know that wishmaking is a matter of serendipity, coincidence, and perhaps a bit of dumb luck. For example: when you read a fortune cookie, you either immediately sense that the cookie you just cracked open was made specifically for you—a perfect alignment of universal forces working in tandem to deliver that message to you—or you feel, just as strongly, that it somehow fell into the wrong hands and that the little words on the paper could absolutely not have been meant for you. We always assign meaning to these things after the fact, depending on how much we do or don’t want something to happen.
But nevertheless, I’ve been plagued all day, thinking to myself—what will I wish for?
At 11:10pm tonight, in the 60 seconds leading up to my big decision, I’ll be in a desperate panic, racking my brain about which wish I want to come true. Every moment leading up to 11:11pm will be an exercise in feverish chaos and indecision, the agonizing weight of choice stretched in a million different directions and possibilities.
We often feel boxed in, don’t we? But when asked, point blank, what you want to happen, the infinite options available suddenly become quite overwhelming.
Most people just wish for the first thing that comes to mind, which is maybe the best way of going about it.
But if you could have just one wish come true, tonight at 11:11pm, what would you want it to be?
Have faith in your dreams, and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true
—“A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Cinderella
