A Dozen Deepest Wishes

Making comparison is in human nature. We constantly compare ourselves and others to somebody like ourselves—whether we want to or not. Poets and artists take this a step further and draw parallels between people and other beings or objects, such as animals or even inanimate objects. Or we compare the objects to people, attributing human qualities to them. But in the big scheme of things, this is not important: comparisons could really work both ways. Let’s say you want to compare yourself w...