Wishing Upon a Star

Rick Kughen

 

If I wish upon a star—the first one I see tonight—what happens if that particular star is dead and I’m only seeing light from a star that took millions of light years to reach me? Is my wish invalidated because the star is no longer living and technically not able to fulfill wish requisitions? Do I get a lesser included consolation wish?

Dances with Bass Fun FactAlso, given that the stars are millions or billions of light years away, does my wish travel at the speed of light? If so, then one could conclude that my wish won’t reach the star—assuming that the star I wished upon is still living—for a really, really long time. If that’s the case, I’ll have been pushing up daisies for millions of years before my wish even reaches that star I first saw millions of light years ago. Also, I assume that there is some processing time for my wish before it’s dispatched in my general direction. Once it’s been shipped, it’s reasonable to expect that the product of my wish is going to take millions more light years to reach me.

So, when my wish eventually arrives and I am no longer here to receive my requisitioned wish, who gets it? Is some random dude millions of years in the future going to wonder why he’s suddenly been bestowed with a talking beagle who is a professional baccarat player? If I were that guy, I would think that was weird.

Well, I guess if I were that guy, I’d think it was cool, but that guy might not be anything like me and think that a talking, baccarat playing beagle was just creepy. What then?

Has anyone else thought about this? What is the speed of a wish? I am seeing serious flaws in the Wish Upon a Star system and I think someone needs to look into it.

Back to my guacamole.

About Rick Kughen

Rick Kughen is a writer, editor, and fishing bum who lives in Kokomo, Indiana with his lovely wife Charlotte, children Alexa and Eric, a flatulent beagle, two devious cats, his imaginary friend, Ned, and Ned's imaginary dog, Steve. He is a former Executive Editor for Pearson Education in Indianapolis, IN, where he worked for 19 years. He's now a full-time freelance writer and editor; he and Charlotte own and operate The Wordsmithery, a freelance editorial company. In a previous life, he was a newspaper reporter and columnist covering police and criminal courts news. He is a fine graduate of Ball State University where he moonlighted as a student. Kughen is an avid fisherman, writer, fly tyer, bait manufacturer, and baseball card collector. He is a devoted fan of both the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Reds, and of course, he is an incurable audiophile. He is the superhero known as Adjective Man (action figures sold separately). Kughen also answers to "Editor Boy," but only because he appears to have no choice.

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