What I want to be, when I grow up

I want first, to be able to hear what people have to say, and know what they're thinking and feeling. I want to be able to know someone's heart - not have it replace mine or be swept up in what they feel necessarily - but I want to really be able to listen to someone. All the great men I look up to could do this. Thomas Jefferson. P.A.M. Dirac. Albert Einstein. Von Karajan. Bono. All great listeners.

Then, I want to be wealthy. Not just money, but also family and , for lack of a better term - in love. I want to have a big heart. I want to be like old Fezziwig, in Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". I want people to enjoy themselves at my home. I want to play music that they like, and not creep them out by playing some three chord song about pain and death. Fun stuff like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". .... just checking! :-)

I want to be wise. I want to have the fear of the lord in me - for all of you atheists out there (ok,at least I know there is one of you here) - I want to have that deep respect for the processes of nature and life that will claim me and by which my consciousness arises, and will live beyond my mortal existence; to be able to listen to the still small voice within. I want to have knowledge and skill but I don't want to flaunt it. I want it to grow by watching others learn what I know, by my teaching of it that encourages a new look with their eyes upon the matter - I want to learn by doing and to discover that to teach , is to learn. And I want to respect all faiths, and also be able to offer and transmit my own to those that I care about and love. And I will be happy if any of it all works, and not be too discouraged if knowledge does not survive - I want to commit it to a medium that lets my learning, my knowledge, and perhaps even a bit of my soul - carry on and hopefully do what I could not through time.

I love children and when I grow up I want lots of them. I want children to be taught well, that in their later days they do not depart from it. And yet I want them to be creative and think their way out of tricky situations too. I want to have lots of kids. And I want them to have fun while growing up, but I want them to know where the limits of life are so they can push them later. And most importantly, in the early part of the 21st century - I want to see them play - really play - not just connect to some kind of electronic medium. I want to see drinks on the store shelves that contain less sugar than candy bars. I want them to eat food that doesn't contain bad chemicals , that are there only to save money. And I want them to have healthy social relationships and to sky their academics.

What I want most - is to be a responsible, decent person that everyone can rely upon + help build a corner of the world that is adventurous, fun and safe, maybe even a little kinky, and I want to use my gift of sight and expression to discover something that has never been discovered before, and write about it in a way that everyone can understand.