While trying to piece together information about a former Sunshine Coast student, Alexandra Molina, who was recently featured on Oprah's Wildest Dreams Come True segment, I was lured to the Oprah website where you can nominate yourself or someone else to have their wildest dreams come true.
I started thinking about what my wildest dream would be, and, being a reporter by nature, I started asking co-workers, friends and family what their dreams are.
The results were interesting. More than half the people at work want to travel full time, visit family in far away places and experience different cultures.
Others want money - lots of money - so they don't have to continue living pay cheque to pay cheque. These dreams can be achieved with Oprah's funding, or a winning lotto ticket.
I suppose hard work could even make them a reality, if you want to go that route. But one dream a coworker told me is far beyond the power of money. Her wildest dream come true would be to see all of her loved ones die of natural causes, without any suffering, in their old age. Sure, money could prolong life, even improve it in some ways, but it can't guarantee there will be no suffering.
Another person I posed this question to while on the exercise bike at Kinetic Fitness told me she wants people to be more caring and accountable for their actions. It seems that if everyone lived by the golden rule, this could be achieved. But that's not something money can buy. Sorry, Oprah.
Another friend said her wildest dream would be peace on earth. I don't think money can buy that. Money has a power over people. We feel we need more, no matter how much we have, and I've found more money makes us unhappier. Sounds like an odd statement, I know, but some of the happiest people I've ever seen were in a small village in Mexico. I say village, but really it was a group of a couple dozen families that had built huts out of whatever they could find. Children were running and laughing, mothers were sharing stories, and fathers were telling tall tales. They had barely enough money to buy food and clothing but made do with the little they had.
I think it would be interesting to live in a society where everyone had the same amount of money, access to the same services and the same types of material possessions. I wonder if there would be such jealousy, anger and fighting in a society like that.
I'll step off my soap box for a minute to say I'm wrapped up in the same game of wanting more money to travel, buy a house, a boat, a new car, more toys and cool clothes. We're all influenced by the society we live in, and our society is all about the money. But money couldn't buy my wildest dream. It's the same thing I pray for every night - that my family and friends (and me, too) are happy, healthy and safe. That's what's fundamentally important to me. Of course, if Oprah wants to give me a few million dollars, I'll take that too.
