Make a wish

The book club decided to read "The Fault in Our Stars" this month. (Whether or not we actually discuss it during the gathering is anyone's guess.) There are countless worthy topics triggered by reading this book: facing one's mortality and leaving a legacy, friendship, the value of suffering, the importance of literature, how to care for the terminally ill. But I've been thinking about something a little different. I think I can safely say, without ruining the plot, that a major portion of the story involves one of the characters' Make-a-Wish trips.

Don't worry, I do not have a life-threatening disease, and even if I did, I'm pretty sure I'm too old to get a Wish. Still, it's an interesting question: what would you do if you could do anything?

It has to be something I couldn't do for myself. Something that requires more than just money or time, because I have both of those (although conceivably I wouldn't if I were dying). So I'll have to make the Camino happen of my own accord. No, the Wish requires a little bit of pull, some connection, some influence, some outstanding rule-bending circumstance that makes it the chance of a lifetime. I lament that I have now missed out on what would have been the two ultimate Wish experiences (for me) because I didn't get sick sooner: a private audience with Saint John Paul II, or (a distant second) a cameo in one of the Harry Potter films with at least a week on set during filming.

The problem is that as I've gotten older, I've become significantly less attached to worldly things. I'm not saying this in a prideful way, but I have no desire now to plaster my bedroom walls in autographed "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" posters or be front row at a Hanson concert (although it was surreal seeing them at The Tavern and getting high-fives from 2 out of 3). Even famous people are just people, and stuff is just stuff, and my most-cherished memories have been doing normal things with my friends and family: watching the Kristen Bell sloth video with Brandi in Scaggs, playing computer Jeopardy a hundred years ago in Hilary's basement, hearing Uncle Dave tell his crazy stories, singing the sun down at youth choir practice, going out for a drink with a friend.

So, I've now pretty much talked myself into not needing a wish. But I do not want to let you, dear reader, down, and I do not want to live a life devoid of big dreams, so I will put forth the following Wish, hoping that someday I will be able to make it happen before I'm dying of an incurable illness.

I would like to found the Saint Gianna Scholarship fund, to put young, faithful, dynamic Catholics through medical school. I will always be grateful that the great cost of medical school was not a factor in my choice of career paths, that I was able to follow where I felt the Lord was leading me without wondering how I would ever make it work. And I was disheartened by the lack of strong Catholics in medicine despite the obvious deep need. We are desperate now more than ever for compassionate care that sees each life as valuable without fearing suffering, that makes the most of God-given talents and scientific breakthroughs to protect the dignity of the human person without compromising. But it's also harder than ever for Catholics to be on the front lines, when euthanasia and abortion are legal, when IVF and the Pill are the "gold standard" against which other methods are stacked, when psychiatric care is an afterthought, when even the American Academy of Pediatrics advocates promoting birth control for all teens. Case in point. I think it's enough to make a faithful Catholic re-consider their options, especially knowing the financial implications of medical school. So my goal would be to establish a foundation that could off-set that, maybe for one person, hopefully for more. I would need a lot of help in the finer points of non-profits and scholarship management, not to mention raising the funds. Not to mention that it wouldn't begin to counter the ethical challenges or the intensity of training, but if it could get us more of the right kind of doctor, I think it would be worth it. So if any Wish-granting fairies are out there, I've made my decision.