{"id":4644,"date":"2025-05-22T08:58:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T12:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4644"},"modified":"2025-05-22T08:58:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T12:58:00","slug":"when-you-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/when-you-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Wish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Like a lot of people, Cliff Edwards wanted to hit the big time.

Unlike most people, he actually succeeded.\u00a0 \u00a0

In 1909, Edwards dropped out of school in Hannibal, Missouri \u2013 he was 14 years old at the time \u2013 and became a traveling entertainer.\u00a0He sang in saloons and flophouses across the Midwest, accompanying himself on the ukulele.\u00a0

Cliff taught himself to play that humble \u201cmini-guitar\u201d because it was the cheapest instrument in the music store. One club owner, who could never remember his name, called him \u201cUkulele Ike.\u201d\u00a0The nickname stuck.

During the 20s and early 30s, Ike became a star on Broadway, in Vaudeville, and in early Hollywood movies.\u00a0

His crystal clear voice could slide up and down over three octaves.\u00a0In 1929 \u2013 the year America and the world were plunged into the Great Depression \u2013 he recorded Singin\u2019 in the Rain, <\/em>which hit number one on the charts.

Edwards further endeared himself to fans by voicing some of the earliest Disney animated characters.

Success brought many things to Ukulele Ike.\u00a0The one thing it didn\u2019t deliver was happiness.

He married and divorced three times. He made a fortune and lost it all, declaring bankruptcy on four occasions.

Edwards battled drug addiction and alcoholism.\u00a0He died penniless in 1971 as a charity patient at a Hollywood hospital. Since his body was unclaimed, it was donated to the UCLA Medical School.\u00a0

But the Actors\u2019 Fund of America, hearing that news, compassionately purchased his remains and paid for the burial.\u00a0Disney funded his gravestone.

Most people would say they have never heard of Ukulele Ike.\u00a0

But it would be hard to find anyone in America who hasn\u2019t been touched by the one-of-a-kind vocals<\/a> of his signature song:\u00a0When You Wish Upon a Star.<\/em>

Cliff Edwards was the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney\u2019s 1940 masterpiece Pinocchio. <\/em>He sang the lilting tune that after more than 75 years is still the most recognizable \u201csound of Disney:\u201d

When you wish upon a star<\/em>
Makes no difference who you are<\/em>
Anything your heart desires will come to you<\/em>

Edwards\u2019 own life was a testimony to the fact that wishing for \u201canything your heart desires\u201d (and sometimes even getting it) is one of the world\u2019s worst guides to happiness.\u00a0

It\u2019s one of the stranger aspects of human existence that if we aim for happiness, we rarely experience it.\u00a0

Happiness is almost always a by-product of aiming for something else.\u00a0

If we choose to serve others; generously share what God has shared with us; use our gifts and talents in ways that bless others, prompting us to lose track of our own fears and worries \u2013 then we don\u2019t generally have to go looking for happiness.\u00a0

Happiness will usually find us.\u00a0

The overall message of Scripture is that if we set our hearts on what Jesus identified as our two primary commandments \u2013 loving God and loving others \u2013 we will come to know the grace and peace that God alone can provide. David writes, \u201cYou make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore\u201d <\/em>(Psalm 16:11).

The happiest people in the world are those who yearn to bring happiness to others.

And it makes no difference who you are.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Like a lot of people, Cliff Edwards wanted to hit the big time. Unlike most people, he actually succeeded.\u00a0 \u00a0 In 1909, Edwards dropped out of school in Hannibal, Missouri \u2013 he was 14 years old at the time \u2013 and became a traveling entertainer.\u00a0He sang in saloons and flophouses across… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[251],"class_list":["post-4644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-happiness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4646,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4644\/revisions\/4646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}