Prompt: 

Feb 3

Writing Room

A genie has granted your wish to build your perfect space for reading and writing writing. What’s it like?

Well, hi there Genie. 

First, I would like to give a shoutout to this Genie of mine. You sound like a human being and not a mystical creature (partly because I do not believe in Genies). Let me digress a little and ask you though (without causing any prejudice to this amazing thing you’ve done for me),  if you can grant anyone any wish in the world, why then are you trapped in a bottle or a lamp or whatever? I mean, I’d like to think that there are better places to live in on earth… or better still, can’t you just wish yourself a house in heaven (okay, no. It does not work that way). Also, G, has anyone ever wished for infinity wishes? It just seems like the ‘make sense’ thing to do. 

Second, I look around this room and I’m happy… obviously. This is a classic room for a classic lady like me (I mean, it’s such an amazing room that I can actually say I’m a classic lady and there’s no hater to roll their eye at me) So, thank you for this cocoon which automatically blocks out the outside world and its numerous biases, standards and demands. 

Thank you for the constant running shower. Like I told you earlier (even though I thought this was all a joke), my best articles and stories always come whenever I’m under a running shower. It never fails to disappoint. There’s obviously something with a simulation of rain that inspires man. There’s something with water (ask those UNILAG students that go to read near the lagoon because the ‘goddess of the water’ helps them understand). There’s something about water… so thank you for this constantly running shower. 

Thank you for the new Mac. I have not taken a look at it but I said, ‘surprise me’ so I suspect you got a model that has not yet been released. So thank you. I can already hear my fingers caressing the keyboard and making magic… it’s the sound of true love.

Thank you for the chair and the table. No sofas, no reclining chairs, no massage cushion… thank you for respecting that wish. I appreciate. These solid chair and table help me more than you can imagine. 

Thank you for all the snacks and food that never end, here also. I don’t need them to read or to write but it’s always nice to have some food around. 

Well, that’s all. Except you want me to thank you for the lights and tiles and walls and the normal stuff. It’s basically a room with a running shower at one end, and with a table and a chair and a plain wall and the MAC! at the other end. It’s all I need physically to write my articles. Or to read. Any extra comfort is just calling for sleep and deep slumber. 

Which brings me back to my first point. Mr Genie sir, you go around in your smokey form telling people all around the world to wish on you for anything they’d want (or three things, like I’ve heard) and that you’ll absolutely give them these three things. I would not even question the fundamental wrongness of what you do – how it is subtly intended to divert people’s attention from actually praying to God, or how it teaches the ‘get rich quick’ mentality which in itself is not a bad mentality but has been corrupted by the world, or how you teach people to believe that wishful thinking actually takes people places, etc. Those things are not quite relevant for this post. I’ll, however, like to point out a major flaw in your ‘charity program’; you cannot truly grant people the wishes of their heart without first working on their heart! There, I said it. 

So for instance, you give me this amazing room but you really cannot propel me to write. You cannot make me diligent with my writing and my reading, and so this room is as good as useless. 

Even if I wished for you to propel me to write, it’s still the same thing. You could propel me to write  and I’d still stare at a blank screen if my heart is not diligent.

If I wished for a handsome and caring husband, I could get my wishes but it wouldn’t guarantee that I’d be a good wife (by the way, EVERYONE should watch The Good Wife. Spoiler Alert: Will Gardner dies). 

If I wished to be a good wife, you could propel me to be one, but my actions would conflict with my heart… so I’d eventually be a bad wife. 

I know that I have totally gone off the point of what I was asked to write. But I just wanted to point out that as much as I appreciate this writing and reading space you have given me, I think you should go back to the drawing table and ask yourself what exactly the aim of your charity organization is. If it is to help people attain their dreams and biggest wishes, then you’d need to find a way to work on the hearts of the people themselves because everything is first inward then outward. When a man has the right heart and attitude, his dreams are easier attained and more appreciated. 

If, however, you want to feed man with just scraps of how awesome his future can be, then yes, by all means, keep encouraging wishful and superficial thinking. 

Sorry…