Day 11: The Problem with Wishes

Wish 11: A Pleasant Day

When I set out to write the 12 Wishes of Christmas, I was also trying to find out what people were wishing for.

It wasn't easy. I was expecting surveys that showed people cared. I thought people were wishing for peace, an end to apartheid, hunger, famine and terrorism. I thought people wanted the troops safely home. But no survey showed those in big numbers.

A recent survey in the USA showed that getting a vehicle was the number 1 wish this Christmas. Then comes clothes and TVs. Family and friends come in at number 4 - tied with cellphones! Peace on Earth, getting a job and paying off debts are far down the materialism-dominant list.

I think the surveys are asking the wrong questions. They are asking what people want to get for Christmas, not what they wished for others.

The surveys could also be wrong because people are easily influenced by the latest buzzwords. Another survey in 2000 found that half of the children wanted what they just saw on a TV commercial at the time the survey was taken. (No wonder I could never get a good response from my kids when they were young.)

If you widen a web search to find out what people are asking for around the world, the results are too random. Let's face it, wishes are subjective. People given the chance to imagine that they can have anything will identify with their material world. What they are answering is the question, "If you won a million dollars, what would you do with it?"

And then tonight, I happen to ask a regular guy, a mall security guard, the question, "What do you wish for this Christmas?" And he answered, "I wish that everybody has a pleasant day."

A pleasant day. Very simple, and very appropriate. Also, very selfless.

And that's what I'll wish for today too. With or without any survey results.