What Other People Wish For

Last night at Bible study, Preach'rman, in addition to putting me onto a new philosophical bend, told a story.  It was one I had heard many times before in many different ways, and you probably have to.  However, I must insist on forcing you to read it at least once more:

There were three friends who were all in college.  One attended Texas Tech, one was from UT and one was an Aggie.  The three friends decided one afternoon to go out on a lake.  As they were out in their boat, a storm blew up around them.  There was thunder and lightning and they couldn't see the shore.  Coincidentally, a lamp happened to float by.  One of them picked up the lamp and a genie came out of it offering each of them one wish.

The Texas Tech student said, "I wish I were safe back in Lubbock."  Suddenly, he was back in his dorm on the Tech campus.

The UT student stepped up next and said, "I wish I were safe back in Austin."  Suddenly, he was back in his dorm on the UT campus.

The Aggie, looking around at the storm.  He saw the lightning and heard the thunder.  He felt the waves rocking the boat beneath him and he was utterly terrified.  This was even worse now that he was alone.  He looked around and said, "Boy, I'm scared!  I sure wish I had my friends back!"

At the end of Preach'rman telling this story, someone said, "Be careful what you wish for!"  My mom leaned over and wisely whispered to me, "Be careful what OTHER people wish for!"  I laughed.

This didn't really strike me as anything important until this afternoon as I was doing my defensive driving course.  (Don't ask!)  The part I was working on today was talking about drunk driving.  (No.  That has nothing to do with why I was taking the course.)  It told the story that so many of us have been exposed to before.  It was the story of the very pretty girl who was hit by a drunk driver and was horribly horribly scarred.  I won't force you to look at the pictures, but in case you don't remember, Google Jacqueline Saburido.

This story made me think back to Preach'rman's story and my mom's comment.

We talk a lot about how our choices affect others, but do we ever really stop to consider the implications of that statement?  If everyone's choices affect someone else, doesn't that mean that someone else's decisions are inevitably affecting you?

I have a website set as my homepage that offers a new sci-fi flash fiction every day.  In case you don't know, flash fiction is like short stories but shorter.  The most famous example of flash fiction is from Ernest Hemmingway.  His friends challenged him to write a story using only six words.  This was the result:

For sale:  baby shoes, never worn.

This has spawned an entire (wonderful) website:  SixWordStories.net.

Most flash fiction does not put quite such a limitation as six words, but the idea of brevity in the story telling is the idea.  In Hemmingway's example, he has characters, plot, and story.  It is, in my opinion, a beautiful example.  The idea of flash fiction is to get in, give the reader the story, and get out.  My homepage, 365 tomorrows, limits their submissions to 600 words.  As you have probably gathered from this blog, brevity is not my gift.  I have great respect for these authors.

Believe it or not, this does apply to what I was talking about.  Bear with me.

I say all of this to set up today's flash fiction from 365 tomorrows:  To The End of Time, Or Lisa.  As I was watching the thing about Jacqueline, I was reminded of this story.  Particularly, I was reminded of this quote from when he is talking to Lisa:

"Both of us live in a different instance of our universe, everyone does, but the funny thing is, ours overlap at this exact moment."

I was reminded of this quote, because, were it not for the man's drinking, his instance of the universe likely would never have overlapped with Jacqeline's.  Likely, they would never have met each other.  And yet, in that one cataclysmic moment, their worlds crossed and neither were ever the same after that.  I'll admit it's an extreme example, but usually those are the ones that make you start to look at the idea.

If we generalize this, every time you meet a person, your life intersects with theirs.  As such, however small the change, you are never the same again.  Simply their presence in your life, if nothing else, changes you in the fact that you have now come in contact with one more person.

Now consider this.  That person chose to take the path they did that caused the two of you to meet.  Had they not chosen that path, you would never have met, your worlds would never have crossed, and you would remain unaffected by the interaction that never happened.  Thus, their choice changed your life forever.  Every time your world meets someone else's, their choice has changed you forever.

Sometimes, the world isn't fair.  If it were, your choices would affect you.  You would only ever be punished for your own mistakes and no one would be able to change you but you.  However, this is not the way it is.  Other people's choices do affect you every day.  You may not be able to buy what you want at the store, because someone chose to buy the last one.  You may miss the light, because someone else decided to drive slowly.  You may be horribly scarred in a car accident, because someone else decided to drink and drive.

You may be dragged back into the middle of the storm, because some Aggie gets scared.

"Be careful what other people wish for."

Life really isn't fair.