“Make a wish!” How many times have you heard that phrase just before blowing out the birthday candles? I think my mother baked a cake for me (yellow or chocolate with chocolate icing) for at least the first twenty-two of my birthdays. Yet, as I look back, I can’t say that I recall any of those twenty-two wishes. I would guess that many of the early wishes involved toys or good grades in school while later wishes might have involved the desire for specific romantic attachments. Although I can’t say that I remember it clearly I would also suspect that my twenty-second birthday wish was something like, “Oh, please let me find a job when I graduate!” which, fortunately did come true just six months after that last birthday in my parents’ home.
So, why all this reminiscing about the wishes of birthdays past? On a whim, I picked up the book, If…1 & 2 (Questions for the Game of Life) on the clearance table at the local Barnes and Noble Bookstore a few weeks ago and the very first question listed is: If you were to be granted one wish, what would it be? On the surface it seems a very simple question, and yet, when considering all of the possibilities, it really isn’t simple at all. Many years ago I remember watching an ABC Afterschool Special: The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody where twelve year old Joanna encounters the fairy godmother-like “Aunt Thelma” (played, believe it or not, by the actress Butterfly McQueen, most famous for her role as “Prissy” in Gone With the Wind). As a result of her encounter with the unusual Aunt Thelma (via the vintage 1970s television set) Joanna is granted seven wishes. Aside from the caveat that “wishing for more wishes” is not allowed, Joanna has free reign. But yet she struggles, and foolishly squanders several of the wishes before finally figuring it out.
So, with only one wish, there would be no room for error. The other problem with wishes is that no action in this world appears to exist in a vacuum. Although the sciences were never my strongest subjects in school, I seem to recall a “law” or a “rule” or an “axiom” (I never could keep those straight, but at any rate it was something more than a “strong suggestion) that “for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction”; and therein lies the rub. How do you anticipate the “reaction”, the perhaps unintended consequences that are sure to accompany the granting of your wish?
Wishing for material things is clearly out, for with cars and homes and other luxury items come taxes and maintenance and the threat of being robbed. Good health seems like a plausible choice but is “health” too general a term? Would more than one wish be required to ensure physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health? If so, that could also be tricky. There are countless examples around the world of all kinds of people who have sharp minds but crumbling bodies, physical strength but failing minds, or those who possess both physical and intellectual power, but who are plagued by levels of moral decay and spiritual corruption nearly impossible to comprehend. Clearly, a larger and more altruistic type of wish would likely be more effective. But could there still be unintended effects?
Could wishing to end hunger in one part of the world lead to food shortages in another? Does the end of a drought in one region mean the advent of dangerous flooding somewhere else? Might a miracle drug to cure cancer or AIDS lead to mutations that would lead to the formation of increasingly dangerous or virulent diseases in the future? Perhaps the key lies not in trying to reduce or eliminate the “bad” in the world but rather, in increasing the “good.” As 1940s song writer Johnny Mercer put it, “…we better accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess around with Mr. In-Between.” This however, is more easily said than done.
Take, for example, the idea of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth which date back to the 4th Century. Even those who are not especially religious have a least a cursory knowledge of this list, thanks, at least in part to the 1995 movie, Seven, starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. However, is the general population aware that there is also a list of seven heavenly virtues? Despite having had a more extensive religious education than many, mostly because my mother was a Sunday School teacher for over 30 years, sadly I cannot recite the seven virtues: humility, generosity, love, kindness, self-control, temperance, and zeal nearly as readily as I can relate their negative counterparts.
However, since pride occupies the top spot on the list of what is wrong with our world, then, perhaps the key to finding the perfect wish lies within its virtuous counterpart: humility. What wonders might be achieved by wishing for every person in the universe to demonstrate perfect humility in all that he or she does? What might that look like?
In our competitive, success-driven world, humility unfortunately gets a bad rap. Too often, I think the world assumes that the humble person is basically a doormat, some poor sap with “Welcome” emblazoned across his forehead, waiting for the “successful” people of the world to wipe the grime from their shoes all over his chest. But is this really true? The Bible itself actually suggests otherwise. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, also known as The Beatitudes tells us, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) Inherit the earth? All of it? Everything? The Big Kahuna? That sounds more like a “power move” than “Operation Doormat” to me.
The scientific community extols the benefits of humility as well. In his article, 8 Psychological Benefits to Being Humble, psychologist and author, Dr. Jeremy Dean references a number of psychological research studies which indicate that humble people:
- Cope better with anxiety
- Perform more effectively in leadership positions
- Exhibit higher levels of self-control
- Demonstrate higher levels of academic and job performance
- Are less judgemental of others and have better interpersonal relationships
If every person on the planet possessed these characteristics, would any of the current problems in the world continue to exist? Would humble people ever wage war or engage in acts of terrorism against one another? If meekness leads to higher levels of self-control would anyone ever struggle with obesity or substance abuse? Would mass shootings, police brutality, or racial profiling ever take place in a world where the ego does not reign supreme? Would crime be eliminated? Would world leaders who subscribe to the tenets of humility ever allow pollution, climate change, unemployment, poverty, or homelessness to continue? Perhaps one simple wish – a healthy dose of humility for all of mankind, is the answer to most of society’s ills.
Unfortunately, much of our world merely confirms that humility is in desperate straits. Celebrities and “ordinary people” alike seize the spotlight through reality TV, YouTube, and social media. We are so self-absorbed that we share pictures of our dinner plates on Instagram. No longer content with the mere “fifteen minutes of fame” predicted by Andy Warhol, technology allows us to seek fame over the course of decades (complete subscribers and paid advertising). Therefore, implementing a wish for worldwide humility at this point would probably be similar to trying to put toothpaste back into the tube. It would take a major shift in perspective. But that isn’t a profound enough reason not to try.
Perhaps humility needs a publicist. Maybe humility needs to change its image. Since no magic genie has granted me that one “super wish” (yet – it could still happen!) instead I issue this challenge: Let’s make humility cool. Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life, perhaps summed it up best when he said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.”
quietlyradical 