When Helen Hayes was a struggling actress, she strolled through central Park with her boyfriend, Charles MacArthur. He bought a bag of peanuts, placed a few in her hand, and told her, “I wish these were emeralds.”
Time passed. Helen Hayes married Charles. They had a daughter and a son. They had tragedies: their daughter died of polio at age nineteen. But they also enjoyed great success. Helen Hayes became “The First Lady of American Theater.” The first woman to win an EGOT; even a Broadway theater named in her honor. Charles became an Academy Award winning screenwriter.
Toward the end of their long life together, surrounded by the creature comforts of success, Charles presented a small bag to her, dropped a handful of emeralds in her palm and said, “I wish these were peanuts.”
It is fundamental to human nature to want more. When we are young, more success. When we are old, the pleasures of youth. The important thing, I believe, is not what we place in the palm of the one we love. Rather, that we have the palm of a loved one close at hand.
I wish everyone a loving palm for 2024. And I recommend wishing for peanuts over emeralds. So much more nutritious.
The Awkward Pose 