Saying for the day: The aim of psychoanalysis is to relieve people of their neurotic unhappiness so that they can be normally unhappy. ~Sigmund Freud

The pages of the daily calendar have flipped by and it is Thursday already. That means it is time for a mind expanding, life changing, out of this world blog. Sorry! All you are getting is another elf tale. Which begins as all good elf tales should:
Once upon a time, not a long time ago, in a world , not far away, there lived a psychiatrist named Raymond Burr. His original name was Raymond Burrostovitch but he had it legally shortened to Burr for professional as well as personal reasons. You may recognize the name as it was often seen in the tabloids for Dr. Burr was for many years the psychiatrist of the stars and very rich. Into his Hollywood office came those whose names and faces were known in almost every home in America ( Old Order Amish excluded).
Now Dr. Burr was a good psychiatrist , in point of fact , he was a great psychiatrist .He really changed lives. Because of him stars that had been divorced five or six times were finally able to find true love. Child stars were delivered from the trauma of having grown up in the studio instead of a home. Stars recommended him to their friends ( Those that had friends). The rich also flocked to him. At one time or another he worked with every wealthy family in the country. They flew to Hollywood and rented a mansion just to be seen by him. He got results.
Because of all this and his very, very high fees he became one of the richest men in America. Of course his investing most of his money in a new company called Microsoft didn’t hurt either.
But Dr. Burr wasn‘t interested in money . He was a man with a mission. He believed that he had found the doorway into a person’s psyche . He had a breakthrough that would revolutionize psychiatry. He was writing the book that would , in the future, be required reading for all students of psychiatry. It was to be titled “ Wishing as the doorway to the person within”.
When a person had been with him four sessions or so and he was sure they wouldn’t lie to him he would ask two questions.
First he asked “ If you could have one wish what would you wish for?” The answer to that question he wrote on a four by five index card. Later he would add a comment to it. Of course, it also went into the patient’s record.
Then he asked “if you had three wishes what would you wish for?” These also he recorded on a four by five card.
From the patient’s wishes Dr. Burr could see where the real pain was. He could then bring all of his own great talent to bear to heal that pain.
Some patients wished that their parents would love them, some that they would be famous, some that their first wife would come back. So many wishes from so many patients.
The three wishes were just as revealing. Some patients held the third wish in case the first two didn’t work out. Some would go for broke and use them all. Some would use one for themselves and the rest for mankind. But in those three wishes was more information than one might gather in months of therapy.
So the years went by ( as years tend to do) and the collection of four by five cards grew. From these cards his book would come. Some of them would be chapter headings, some illustrations, but all would be useful.
But then one day Dr. Burr thought that his research was incomplete because he worked only with the rich and famous. So he closed his office and moved to Green Bay. There he opened a practice. He contacted all the county agencies and let them know that if a patient needed his service but had no money he would be glad to serve them for nothing. He could do that because he was already disgustingly rich. The agencies, hard pressed for cash, jumped at the chance to send the worst of their clients to him, those in poverty with no insurance. He was glad to get them
His collection of four by five cards continued to grow but now there was a large sampling of poor people as well as rich and even an occasional Green Bay Packer. One wish upon another.
With the poor he discovered that the one wish was almost always for wealth in one form or another, as though money would solve all their problems. For those people the second and third wish became the one’s that revealed the real person. But still the system worked.
After ten years in Green Bay he was just about ready to write his book. The outline was done. The little cards for each chapter were numbered. The proper wishes were in the proper places. It would have been great.
But just before he was about to take a year off and complete the book the little man in the green suit with the shoes that curled up at the toes arrived. He explained to the good Doctor that he was an elf and that because of his work with the poor he was granting him one wish.
And so it began. Dr. Burr had to decide what to wish for. He didn’t need money. He was already famous. He wanted his book to stand on its own merits. He couldn’t wish for world peace because some Bush supporter would come along and wish for war ( not that all Bush supporters are war wishers but there are a few). In desperation he began searching the wish cards. First this wish seemed great and then that one. But he had to choose. So many possibilities and only one choice.
They found him in his office sitting in the corner surrounded by a pile of cards. He was mumbling about wishes and stupid elves and the unfairness of life. His colleagues got him admitted to a private sanitarium where he became violent demanding they give him his wish cards. They had to sedate him. He remains there to this day.
Now the morals to this story:
1. If you have a wish use it don’t meditate on it.
2. Carded wishes are not much help.
3. Too many wishes spoil the soup.

#### News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal .Yesterday was one wild day in Pigeon Falls. Bonnie Mcgregor had her twins, one boy and one girl. That would have been enough excitement to keep Nancy’s humming all day but it was minor compared to the rest.
In the morning a speaker’s stand was erected out at the Lake of The Loons. The Liar’s Club let them use their portable loudspeaker system. All this for the memorial service for Tommy UK who the town thought was eaten by a whale. The Liar’s Club sixty five piece band , which Tommy UK loved, agreed to play. In fact all three members wanted to do something. Eino, Pastor Joan, and Mrs. Trumble were slated to speak in that order.
Eino talked about some of the things that Tommy UK had done for the town. How on more than one occasion he had saved Pigeon Falls. Pastor Joan talked about his relationship to the Church and to God and told what a good conformant he was.
Tommy UK’s father was asked to speak next but he declined saying he was sure his son was alive.
Then Mrs. Trumble got up and began her speech. She reminded people of when Tommy UK was Mayor and all he did to push the adults to take responsibility. After that she announced that she and Tommy UK had a secret and it was time that it was told. It was just at that moment that a voice from the back of the crowd said “ But what if I don’t want it told?.
Then striding up to the platform came Tommy UK who had just come in on the afternoon train about forty minutes ago. He had borrowed a bicycle and ridden as fast as he could to the Lake of the Loons as soon as he discovered they were having a memorial service for him.
His father , who was on the platform, said “ I told you he wasn’t dead”
Mrs. Trumble hugged him. He then related all of what had happened to him including the fact that he hadn’t had a chance to make a phone call but though the man in black had done it.
Will we ever get to know Mrs. Trumble’s secret? Who is this strange man in black? And of course is Tommy UK really the undertaker’s kid?
*****

Today's Link-More Cool Pictures- It lives up to its name
This morning I helped Betty set up the new plant holder. It looks great. Will have some pictures of it in a day or two or three . Today was my granddaughter's birthday and we had a little party for her. Now Betty, Pennie, Bree and Peter have gone to Lifefest again and I am home alone. My other son and boys are coming tomorrow. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
My Roses