It's OK to want things -- some things. After all, it's Christmas time.
I want a car that will run 100 percent on electric power, travel 500 miles per charge and cost less than $20,000.
It's OK. It's Christmas time.
Just to make sure Santa knows everything on my list, I want:
-- Time to slow down to the pace it had when I was a kid. Or slower, if that's an option.
-- Telemarketers to stop calling to ask if I want to renew the extended warranty on my car. They have told me about 63 times that it's my last chance to take advantage of this "special" opportunity.
-- Jerry Jones to sell the Dallas Cowboys to a good old Texan (cowboy hat optional) with tons of money and common sense -- and the humility to stay out of the team's day-to-day business.
-- TV infomercial irritant Billy Mays -- the one with the foghorn voice that you can hear even after muting the sound - to retire.
--Parents to start teaching their children to have respect for other people -- and to show a little themselves.
-- People in large, crowded stores to quit being rude while shopping -- pretending not to notice while cutting off others in their path as if they were driving in the Indy 500.
-- People in parking lots to quit driving as if they are in an Army tank and assuming that, no matter what move or turn they make, everyone else will automatically yield.
-- All corrupt politicians to resign, beg for forgiveness, pay back every cent they took, then serve at least a couple of years of "meaningful" community service.
That's what I want. It's still the same as it was when I was a little kid -- I don't ask for much.
Seriously, though, most of us tend to want too many things we don't need, and don't seem to focus on what matters most in life. We may realize that when reflecting in the still of the night or in the middle of a crisis, but those moments are fleeting.
Maybe we can focus on wanting more of the special things in life -- like more time with our family, along with more wisdom, humility, patience, generosity, understanding and unconditional love.
I probably left out something, but I hope Santa will somehow know what it was and surprise me.
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone who has enjoyed and contributed to YourHub.com -- especially the amazing writing machine, Ann Weyant, along with Beverly McClure, Jim Miller, Melissa Dockins, Charles Paul Stephens and Pamela Dixon.
Column written by Mark Wilson, first published Dec. 24, 2008, in the Wichita Falls Times Record News.