\r\nThis was written December 16th, 2025<\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\nWishful Thinking<\/h2>\r\n
\r\nWhat if you could have one chance? One chance to fix one of your largest blunders. Or\r\none chance to prevent a tragedy. No matter which one it was. What would you do? Would\r\nyou change your past trajectory to try and become wealthier? Would you save a life?\r\nWould you go from utilitarian principles and avert a world-class tragedy, such as 911?\r\nIt’s hard to say what the best answer could really be, morally or otherwise. After all,\r\nwe don’t have the necessary insights to understand the consequences of such actions.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nWhat are the implications of such a decision 10 years down the line? What about 50 years?\r\nA century down? Hard to say, really. After all, without\r\nsome tragedies, some insights and perspective may be lost, offering disastrous long-term\r\nresults.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nWell, it turns out there is one class of people with insights into such concerns: Genies.\r\nAfter all, they’ve been going around granting people wishes for millennia, and they’ve\r\nbeen able to see the results, and the impact of those results. Sure, most wishes tend to\r\nplay out on the short-term, but that’s not always been the case. After all, regrets tend\r\nto be tied with your life decisions, and thus relate back to your childhood. A few decades’\r\nimpact is not too uncommon.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nBut ultimately, this ties back with a Genie’s greatest tragedy, let’s explore this.\r\nThere is an old legend passed around within the Genie communities. After all, while they\r\ngo unsummoned, they’re not simply dormant in a lamp. Rather, they’re interacting with one\r\nanother.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSo the story goes:\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\n‘Long ago, a depressed youth stumbled upon one of us. The Genie in question was none\r\nother than Salam, whom is known to be the most compassionate amongst us. Seeing this\r\nyoung one, the Genie first announced the classic rules, and offered to proffer him three\r\nwishes.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘But the youth proclaimed “Oh dear Genie, how glad I would be to have stumbled upon thee,\r\nwere I to truly need a wish. Alas, I am in no need, and I worry I would simply cause more\r\ngrief from such use. You can tell of my misery, but I assure you, it is not from want. I\r\nlead what should be a happy life, all of my material needs are met, and I have people\r\naround me to support me. But alas, I can’t help but feel it matter not how much I try,\r\nall I choose turns to grief. My intentions count for little, for all I do turns to pain.\r\nI keep seeing how my actions and words turn people to sadness, and no longer can I bear\r\nit.”\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘Instantaneously, Salam felt overwhelming attachment to this one. But he could tell he\r\nwas taking too much responsibility upon himself, blaming himself for what he had very\r\nlittle control over. Taking personally any grief that would strike others, believing the\r\nthe source of such despair to be their own. Bearing a cross of his own making, burden\r\nthat was never his to take, yet without alleviating others’. He was pained at this, yet\r\nknew there was little he could do to help.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘One day, the boy came and exclaimed: “Oh, Genie, I know, I know. I think I know how to\r\nhelp others. Please, I wish for a steady source of income, such that I may use it to\r\nassist others!”.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘And while the Genie knew that material gains could do nothing to lessen the burden, he\r\ncould but acquiesce and grant the wish. From then on, the youth decided to use this wealth\r\nto treat his family and friends. He also used the wealth to start a few charities. Yet,\r\nno none of the results were as he hoped.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘Eventually, the youth expressed his dismay: “Oh, Genie, I’ve been trying so hard on these\r\ncharities to try to help others, and yet, no matter what I do, these people still seem\r\nso miserable. It seems like the more I help, the more pain I must witness. I feel like\r\na drop in the ocean, and people have come to rely on me and stop putting in the effort\r\nthemselves. Similarly, the help I began to offer friends and family was once seen as an\r\nunexpected boon, which they appreciated, yet now, is is seen as an expectation. They just\r\nassume they have it, and even want more from it than they once had. I feel I can’t\r\nwithdraw any of it from them, yet they seem worse off than they used to be.”\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘Obviously, the Genie knew that part of the issues were that the boy had not surrounded\r\nhimself with the right kind of person, and that he had chosen the wrong allies, that\r\nhis approach to the charities was far from optimal, simply giving away without helping\r\nthe people build themselves back up. Causing dependence without providing growth. Yet,\r\nit was not his place to share.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘One day, the youth came back and expressed: “Oh, Genie, I finally have it. I know the\r\nsolution, I know it! It was so simple, I should have known it! I wish I could take away\r\nsome of people’s pain and take it upon myself!”\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘And right away, Salam knew how bad this would be, he knew this would not end well. Yet,\r\nit was not his place to say anything, and he granted the wish as he must. Initially, it\r\nseemed to work, and the youth was strong, for he had already spent his life bearing more\r\nthan he should. Yet, he was already too empathic, and sensitive. Therefore, even the smallest\r\nsigns of pain on other people’s faces would be too much for his to bear.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘And so, one day he finally came back, with a heart much heavier: “Oh Genie, how could\r\nthis be. I keep trying to drain the pain away, yet it still accumulates. No matter how\r\nmuch I take upon myself, they still get unhappy, I still hurt them, annoy them, make their\r\nlives worse. Why, but why must it be so? No matter what I try, the results are constant:\r\nPain, sorrow and suffering. I can bear it no more. This pain I’ve now taken is so overwhelming,\r\nand the effect it has upon others so insignificant. It’s too much.”\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘And the Genie understood the youth was doomed to a life of sorrow, caring more about\r\nothers’ happiness than his own. His heart would get broken over and over again, either\r\nfrom being used, or simply for misinterpreting the sources of sorrow. His heart was in\r\nthe right place, his intentions pure, yet no one had the strength necessary for such an\r\nexistence. It pained and saddened Salam, yet, there was nought he could do.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘One day, the youth came, weary as never before, and he expressed his final wish: “Oh,\r\nGenie, it truly his too much. And after much contemplation, I’ve realized what the true\r\nissue was. The common thread amongst all of those people is me, and no matter what I do,\r\nno matter how I try to improve myself, no matter my intentions, all I cause is grief. I\r\nneed to erase myself, yet that’s not enough. I’ve already caused so much pain, and that\r\nalso much be taken away. Here is my final wish: I wish I’d never existed”.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘At that, Salam was taken aback, never had he expected such a wish. And he was struck with\r\ngreat sorrow, at having seen such pain grow and accumulate upon his young companion, upon\r\nseeing how it had broken him, and upon seeing how it had pushed him to his limit. Yet,\r\nthis was dwarfed by the impact of the wish itself, for the young master, despite his\r\ngood intentions, was obviously misguided. No, I’m not just talking about how his\r\ndisappearance would not solve anything he hoped to resolve. I’m talking about the what\r\nSalam had to do as a consequence of the wish. See, based on the rules under which Genies\r\nlive, the existing timeline must be destroyed in order for the wished upon one to exist.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘Therefore, Salam had to commit genocide and reset this timeline to an earlier period. He\r\nfelt the death of each and every being in the world. While a copy of many of them would\r\npersist in the new version, they would not be quite the same, they would lead completely\r\ndifferent lives, and therefore, would be completely different individuals. For all intents\r\nand purposes, they were now dead. As for most people conceived after that point, what humans\r\ncall the Butterfly Effect ensure they would never be born. Other people might take their\r\nplace, but they would never exist.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n‘The youth had effectively voided the existence of countless people, forcing Salam to\r\ncause first-hand the greatest tragedy he had encountered so far. And knowing how noble\r\n(yet misguided) he had attempted to be just made it all the worst, for Salam could not\r\nfind it in himself to hate him, nor resent him. Instead, he missed him, and saw it as a\r\npersonal failure, and it ultimately broke him.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/i>\r\n
\r\nUltimately, little is known about how this timeline changed from the original, nor how\r\nmany further changes might have occurred since. It is said that most of the timeline has\r\nbeen rewritten through countless other such tragedies, which pushed Genies to the brink.\r\nUltimately, the Genies, horrified by such tragedies, found ways to become more secluded\r\nand less active, finding loopholes in their whole laws to distance themselves from\r\nhumanity and in order to prevent such tragedy.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThis would be the reason no one encounters Genies in modern days, nor have they been heard\r\nof since times long gone, instead being creatures found only in myths of old.\r\n<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was written December 16th, 2025 Wishful Thinking What if you could have one chance? One chance to fix one of your largest blunders. Or one chance to prevent a tragedy. No matter which one it was. What would you do? Would you change your past trajectory to try and become wealthier? Would you save … Continue reading Writing Challenge 2025 \u2013 19 – Wishful Thinking<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2558,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}