I call forth my dreams.

Saying a want out loud does something mechanical, and it has nothing to do with being overheard by anything larger. It puts the thing into other people's heads, where it sits, and where it gets matched against things you would never have seen from where you stand.

Somebody's brother mentions at Christmas that he would like to learn to sail. Eight months later an email arrives — a colleague's boat, a missing crew member, does he still want to.

That email does not exist if the wish is never said out loud. Wanting privately is a closed circuit.