Since the 1990s, Yoko Ono has helped install Wish Trees around the world, just like the ones she used to see in Japan, inviting passerbys to write down their wishes and tie them around the tree's branches. So far, the project has gathered over a hundred thousand wishes.
Many of the wishes are what you'd expect from such an idealistic installation, hopes for peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men. Some are goofy, like petitions for super powers, and a few are even vulgar, such as this one here. The bit of paper we're featuring for this edition of The DS Life, however, is a wish that might melt your heart. Join us past the post break!
Don't we all ...
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-18-2008 @ 12:51AM
aj said...
Actually, almost all heterosexual men and homosexual women are not looking for the perfect boyfriend.
My wish: I wish vaguely feel-good "art" projects like this and post secret, and et cetra, would go away forever.
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9-18-2008 @ 4:01AM
pikelet said...
Wow, way to take everything too literally and push your oh-so-arrogant views on everyone else.
9-18-2008 @ 4:38AM
aj said...
If you haven't figured out by now that expressing an opinion is not the same thing as pushing said opinion on to others, then you should turn the computer off and leave before you get any more oppressed by the tyranny of words on a screen.
9-18-2008 @ 6:15AM
James said...
You should be careful. It's not just "feel-good art" it's based on a tradition. I've seen one of the exhibitions and I've seen the tradition they're based on. Don't dismiss thing so easily.
9-18-2008 @ 6:34AM
Matdredalia said...
PostSecret literally saved my best friends life. So, I'd be very careful what you wish for.
How do these projects hurt you, in any way, shape, or form?
They don't, and they help others. Grow up.
9-18-2008 @ 6:57AM
aj said...
Your best friend found more catharsis in complete strangers' drawings on postcards and single sentence confessions that they were molested or that they want to leave their spouse than in the actual human being who claims to be their best friend?
I should hope you can see what is wrong with that scenario. It's fairly obvious.
9-18-2008 @ 8:21AM
bug frawg said...
'almost all heterosexual men'?
did no one explain what that word means to you?
heterosexual = is only attracted to individuals of the opposite gender
homosexual = is only attracted to individuals of the same gender
bisexual = is attracted to individuals of both genders
9-20-2008 @ 2:42AM
Matdredalia said...
First of all, I wasn't there at the time. I was out of the country visiting family in Europe and she had no way to get ahold of me at that particular point in time.
Secondly, it wasn't people confessing to wanting to leave their husbands or any such thing that helped her. It was knowing that she wasn't alone with her secret and seeing that maybe there is a chance for her to get past her pain and move on with her life.
But, hey, apparently you're so callous that you can't understand the concept that seeing others moving forward and finding hope can help someone else.
9-18-2008 @ 6:12AM
James said...
I saw one of Yoko Onos wish trees. It was during the Chanel mobile art exhibition in Harajuku. My wish was food related.
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9-18-2008 @ 6:21AM
aj said...
I am aware that it is based on a Japanese tradition. However, Yoko Ono has decided to turn it into a piece of art and slapped her name on it. I'm not calling the traditional practise stupid, I'm calling the marketing of it as "Yoko Ono's Wish Trees" and making it a worldwide participatory art exhibit stupid. It's a distinction between a ritual with meaning, and bad post-modernist thinking making a ritual into a joke.
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9-21-2008 @ 6:26AM
Jamar said...
Kind of like how that shrine in Japan is now overrun with Lucky Star fans and stuff?
9-18-2008 @ 9:12AM
rikki said...
Anonymous declarations are always infinitely fascinating...and amusing too, most of the time.
(Note: I'm a voyeur with a pretty bad case of schadenfreude, and you should probably think of my ilk -- there are A LOT of us -- before submitting your darkest secrets for public consumption ❤)
Later on, should they ever see this piece of paper or remember tying it to a tree, "M" will probably laugh and think of how silly it was to wish for a boyfriend.
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9-18-2008 @ 10:33AM
SephFinale said...
God damn, I come here to read a heart-melting wish and all I get is a flame war. You guys suck.
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9-18-2008 @ 10:38AM
njbeetle said...
If it takes Ono to give the peace tree concept media attention then GREAT.
My wish is for less anger on tech websites.
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9-18-2008 @ 9:55PM
Alisha Karabinus said...
Seconded. Thirded. Infinited.
9-19-2008 @ 5:19AM
buffalo_aaa said...
I find it kind of depressing that this persons wish was posted on the internet for the world to see. I would be upset if I saw my wish sprawled out on some blog. It's like someone stealing your quarter that you threw into a wishing well or announcing your fortune from a cookie to the whole restaurant while you are in the bathroom...
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9-19-2008 @ 4:04PM
Nukie said...
Oh the irony of chopping down trees to make paper so we can then attach that paper to a tree.
I wish for more trees.
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9-20-2008 @ 2:46AM
Matdredalia said...
I think it would be a neat idea to do an Environmental Wish Tree, where folks brought in old paper and whatnot, and you know, did the home-made recycled paper thing, to make their own paper to write wishes for the planet on.
9-25-2008 @ 9:35AM
Zal said...
That's pretty adorable.
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