| Genie is the root word for genius
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| And it’s a really interesting idea because there’s this unlimited power that’s
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| associated with genius, but it’s constrained
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| And that’s really what the human spirit is like
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| 'Cause it has this aspect of the infinite
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| And it is something that can grant wishes
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| But it’s also constrained, terribly
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| We’re constrained mortally and physically and all that but the thing is, is that
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| Both the infinite possibility and the constraint are necessary
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| That’s what maks up the genie, it has to b both at the same time
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| And the idea that, you know, if you find your genie
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| You can have your wishes, that’s right
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| You have to really want what you’re wishing for
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| Or you have to make the proper sacrifices to get it
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| It can’t be just some whim
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| You have to ask for something that you would rather not have
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| Which is usually wisdom
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| Somebody asked me about prayer
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| They asked me if I prayed and I thought, well, depends on what you mean by that,
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| exactly
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| But I do think that if you sit on the edge of your bed
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| And you ask
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| What foolish thing you’re doing to make it worse
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| That you’ll get an answer, right now
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| And it won’t be the one you want
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| But it might be the one that if you listened to would set things straight
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| I don’t think that I’ve ever been in this situation where
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| If something wasn’t going right for me and I sat and thought; |
| «Okay, huh,
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| I’m willing to figure out what I’m doing wrong.»
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| Which is a big thing to think because you never know how much you’re doing
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| wrong it might be something that you really don’t wanna contend with
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| But if you clear some space to meditate on that
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| The probability that you’ll figure out something that you did that was stupid
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| that’s bending you and twisting you in the wind
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| You’ll get an answer very, very rapidly
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| And it’s not obvious how you do that
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| You know, I mean it’s not like you know how you’re manipulating your neurons or
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| something
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| It happens of its own accord in some sense like you can participate in it,
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| I guess and you can interfere with it and it seems to take a certain amount of
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| willpower
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| But it still all happens mysteriously behind the scenes
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| And I would say this sort of attitude towards, let’s say, prayer that we’re
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| discussing is just an extension of that, it’s something like
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| Well, you admit that there’s a problem first
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| And then you ask for the minimum necessary intervention which would be,
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| all right
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| Well, I’d like to move forward on this
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| Some small amount that someone like me could actually manage
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| I’d be willing to carry it out and then you reorient the way you’re thinking as
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| a consequence of that and something usually pops out of the abyss
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| To guide you, very strange
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| But it’s not really any stranger than the fact that we can think at all
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| Because the fact that we can think is actually very strange
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| Strange like the fact that we can dream is strange
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| And that’s strange beyond belief
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| That you can dream or that something in you dreams
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| Which is a much better way of thinking about it because it’s not like you’re
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| really in control of your dreams
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know?
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| I don’t ask God for favors
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| Or for wishes
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| Or for wishes
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| You know? |