閱讀識字 English Reading Made Easy

Early in August, the artist Yoko Ono opened one of her signature projects in Pasadena. The installation, "Wish Trees," consists of 21 small crape myrtle trees arranged throughout the city's popular One Colorado mall in the revived Old Town section. Visitors are invited to write a wish and tie it to one of the trees, something Ono recalls doing at Japanese shrines when she was a little girl. Although Ono never reads the messages tied to her "Wish Trees" -- "I feel it is not right to read people's private wishes" -- she does keep the hundreds of thousands of white tags, eventually to be stored in the Imagine Peace Tower off the coast of Iceland. Nevertheless, many visitors to the trees have taken to reading the wishes as a form of entertainment or, perhaps, even therapy as the nation rides out one earth-shattering wave of bad news after another. Ono's trees have exploded into a Rorschach of national angst. Here are some I saw on several visits:

• I wish for my brother to get off drugs. He is such a good boy and I love him so much.
• I wish for all broken hearts to be mended.
• I wish I could fly in the sky.
• I wish that Old Town would bring back Hooters.
• I wish that all people would just slow down.
• I wish I am getting money.
• I wish for nothing to happen to Obama because if it does my heart will break.
• I wish for the Dodgers to win the championship -- go blue!
• I wish I had a clue.
• I wish my husband will stay away from us and get a job.
• It is too late for wishes.

• I wish we never had to grow up.
• I wish Chico would come back into my life and that we would have a happy relationship.
• I wish I were a fireman.
• I wish my kitty will live until I go to college.
• I wish I had a hot body.
• I wish I had a yucca salad.
• I wish my happiness didn't always revolve around me.
• I wish I find a good husband and have a big family and a lot of money.
• I wish to have Carmen's hair.
• I wish my mother could forgive my father.
• I wish to be a good father and a better person than I am now.
• I wish that my parents would learn to be happy together instead of fighting all the time.
• I wish for more free porn on the Internet.

• I wish for the mother ship to come.
• I wish I could have made out with the Beatles.
• I wish my boyfriend would start being on time.
• I wish for health -- clean from cancer forever.
• I wish I could be smart in school.
• I wish to be the top of the PGA tour pro.
• I wish to never get fat again.
• I wish my mom would let me see Black Knight.
• I wish and hope that my dad is looking down from heaven and that he's proud of me.
• I wish for McCain to win and for Joe Biden to burn in hell!
• I wish I won't be shy anymore.
• I wish my parents weren't so homophobic I am so lonely.
• I wish I be pregnant soon.
• I wish for world peace and 18 million dollars.
• I wish someday I would see my dad again but not too soon.
• I wish to be forever God's instrument of love.
• I wish to get laid.
• I wish that this night could never end.
• I wish unicorns were real.

• I wish that my husband would stop smoking weed.
• I wish that my dear sweet Garrett does not progress in this disease.
• I wish for all wars to end and for some chocolate.
• I wish that I didn't have ugly curly hair.
• I wish that my x box never gets the red ring of death again.
• I wish that I could eat trans fats forever.
• I wish people would be able to see past my acne and not care about it.
• I wish I have an American Girl doll.
• I wish I could get better and change my life and have a meeting with Christina Aguilara and have a long conversation.
• I wish that there would be a cure for blindness
• I wish for an amazing day.

Greg Critser is the author of the books "Fat Land," "Generation Rx" and the forthcoming "Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging."