the wish-mobile

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I wish, as once I wished, that I had taken the overnight ferry from Brindisi to Greece and sat in the cheap seats, on the open deck, with the farmers and their flocks, drinking raw red wine from goat skins and dancing until dawn and their destination arrived.

I wish, as once I wished, I had seen things through and gone around the world 'backwards' -- from east to west -- for the then lordly airfare sum of $900. The complete air ticket allowed you to travel in one direction only -- no doubling back -- but it made allowances for stopovers. I wanted to stop in Japan until I heard that orange juice was $3 per glass and the diffident and distant distances of what I understood the culture to be like pushed me away. So I would skip Japan and go to Vladivostok and catch the Trans-Siberian Railway heading east ... and perhaps see or be robbed by bandits along the route.

I wish, as once I wished, I had gotten to Tierra del Fuego and seen the Atlantic and Pacific oceans embrace.

Or Afghanistan, the eastern terminus of the Silk Route and a place once clamorous in the myriad cultures brought together by riches and accepting of many forms of art and religion and language and not yet demeaned by small men incapable of limiting their rigidities to their penises.

I wish I had ...........................I wish I hadn't

1. ______..........................................1. _______
2. ______..........................................2. _______
3. ______..........................................3. _______  
4. ______..........................................4. _______

How long is this list and how pervasive! If travel were the half of it, everyone would be in clover. Sins of commission and sins of omission, as the Christians say. Travels taken and travels missed -- how could they be as compelling as the clawing, smothering, beckoning, and wondrous thoughts and words and deeds and emotions in other, less obvious realms? God, how I can wish!

Perhaps when the wish-factory has ceased its endlessendlessendless production ... perhaps then I can be ready to answer the only question that makes much honest sense:

Now what?
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