Do You Wish Upon a Star?

A recent TV article unexpectedly hit home hard and highlighted the psychological effects of music and song that can have a lifelong impact, be it for better or for worse.

The music I heard sparked in me a memory of a song which, every time I listen to it, even now at the age of 78, brings tears to my eyes and a lump in the throat: ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ – the Irving Berlin classic from Pinocchio.

Why? I can only guess that it must have left such a deeply lodged disappointment in my childish subconscious. I believed the words that follow ‘When you wish...’, Your dreams come true.

Is it that it is one of the first film musicals I watched that gave me a childhood hope that dreams could come true? The magic of cinema. The sadness was that my dreams did not come to fruition. My family remained in poverty for many, more years to come, shooting stars or not.

What I did not realise, for many years, is that there is an element of truth in the alternative statement: dreams can come true,

I met a schoolgirl when we were only eleven years old. Our association only lasted for a few minutes of each school day as we walked the same route homeward. It was rare for me even to dare to talk to a girl. I attended an all-boys school, so interactions with the opposite sex were rare. But this girl was a rarity –I could talk to her so easily.

The friendship ended when my family moved to a new housing development some four or five miles away from the mining village, and we didn’t meet again until we were seventeen years old. It was a chance meeting at a mutual friend’s home. There was a magnetic attraction but neither immediately recognised the other until after the arrow had struck home, by which time we were committed to each other. That was how quickly the bond between our two hearts was formed.

Life is never without its ups and downs, but here we are at seventy-eight years of age and still together and still in love.

Now, even though most of our dreams have come true, the song’s melody that gave me childhood false hopes still has the same effect and tears always well up in my eyes, and my heart feels heavy.

Our marriage produced two wonderful boys, but we were devastated to lose our eldest son in 2013. You never really get over the loss, but our youngest went on to give us a fantastic grandson, and my son went on to excel academically until health problems interrupted his PhD studies. His recovery is coming slowly.

So, you see, dreams can come true, but it has nothing to do with wishing on a star, shooting or otherwise. The same applies to Rainbows! Those dreams that come true are those that you work towards, even if it takes a lifetime to come to fruition. Don’t pin your hope on the vagaries of shooting stars. Your life is likely to last much, much longer than the light from the transient flare of a star. With dedication and perseverance, you can exceed your wildest dreams. Aim high. Aim beyond the stars.

I wish you well in all your ventures. Don’t give up on yourself at the first hurdle. Everyone fails at something sometimes. The important thing is not to stop. Pause, take stock and readjust your sights if you must, but whatever you do, never stop trying. Because if you’re not trying, you are not living.