Quote:
The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Akio stood beneath thee beautiful and grand tree in the town square. The tree was magnificent with its many star ornaments and gorgeous purple flowers. He appreciated purple, it was probably his second favorite color after blue. However the most attention grabbing feature was the little strips of paper with many citizens wishes on it. Akio was familiar with this sort of activity from his homeland. Japan's own star festival, Tanabata, had a similar practice called tanzaku. He always enjoyed the star festival back in Japan and similarly he enjoyed Destiny City's take on the festival even if some of the customs were new to him.
He took one of the offered pens and strips of paper and thought about his wish. What did he truly desire at the moment. He knew the wish that was in his heart, a wish to end the nagging indecision that had been eating away at him these past few month. He had been torn between his morality and his duty to the Negaverse. He knew that the Negaverse was wrong he knew it was evil. Yet he also knew his duty was to support them as a lieutenant, it had been beaten into him from a early age that he needed to follow through on his duty and responsibilities no matter how distasteful or unpleasant he found them to be. He wished he knew what the right course of action was.
He hated not knowing what to do. It was so much easier to just follow orders, to just have an easy and definitive answer. He couldn't handle open ended questions with no good solution. If he purified he would be abandoning his duty and his life, he would be a coward who ran from responsibility. However if he didn't then he would a coward of a different kind, the kind who stands by while injustice is committed while good and innocent people are hurt and killed. He wasn't sure he could live as either of those.
He thought long and hard about his wish before he set pen to paper. He was thankful his English had improved alot since coming to the United States. He sat in the shade of a nearby tree as he wrote. 'I wish no one would ever be lost and that people would know the right path in life." It was an impossible wish he knew but if even a part of it could come true he would be happy.
So he took the strip of paper and carefully tied it to the tree. He knew that now he was supposed to take someone else's wish. If he granted that person wish then his own wish would come true. Akio like the concept, one good deed for a wish being granted. It seemed like a fair trade. So he moved about the tree looking for one slip of paper that felt right. He eventually picked a blue slip of paper. It read "I wish this city was a safer place for people."
