REGRETS

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

     Welcome back. I took some days off because of spring break. I enjoyed possibly the best spring break of my life. I gave my beloved countless hugs and kisses. I played Halo, my favorite video game. I wrote a lot of fiction. I took a bunch of naps. I pet my cats exceedingly much. I saw The Book Thief  and World War Z. I also gave three lectures. Except for the lectures and the time required to prepare for them, I deliberately set out to do nothing productive. 

     Blessings...to me! 

     Here in Savannah, we take Saint Patrick's Day off instead of President's Day. That extra Monday made this spring break feel as if it came from everlasting to everlasting. It was glorious.   

     So...now...let's think about regret.

     I really only have six regrets in my life. Others should haunt me, but do not. I thank God for all of my regrets. I am grateful they never happened.

Forever Regrets

Regret #1:  I never saw George Jones in concert.

Regret #2:  All that beer I drank during game six of the 1995

                  World Series. I missed the only score of the game when

                  David Justice hit a home run.  

Regret #3:  I always wanted to learn how to play the piano and the

                   banjo.

Regret #4:  I wish I did not have any memories of being an asshole

                   to other people.

Regret #5:  I still have not read War and Peace. 

Regret#6:   I wish I had never stopped playing softball.

Regrets I Don’t Sweat

#1 I regret never learning Greek so I could translate the Bible. Ditto      Hebrew.

#2 I regret not becoming a university professor.

#3 I regret not becoming a scholar in one of the following:  the

     Christian Bible, Charles Darwin, James Joyce, Shakespeare, or

      history.

#4 I wish I had earned degrees in math, physics, economics, and

     biology.

#5 I wish I had stayed in San Francisco. God knows I loved that

     city more than any place I've ever lived.

     There are also regrets for others in our lives. I regret that my mother, father, and step-father were such duds. None of them liked their children very much. I wish my sister, Susan, was alive. She died in a car wreck when she was twelve. I regret not being closer to my siblings, all of them, and how the forces of space and time affect family outcomes. 

     We all have regrets. We all missed opportunities. We all took one day at a time, counted the cost of our decisions, and stubbornly proceeded to make the choices we made. Regrets are delusional psychological acts of self flagellation. They sting in the fine way a poison ivy rash stings when we scratch it.

     I have two observations about my regrets. The first is: I have time to accomplish some of them. At least, I hope I have time.

     The second also has to do with time. If I had accomplished any of my regrets at any time in my past before I met my wife, I regret to say, I would never have enjoyed this life I share with her now.

     Even reading War and Peace might have changed my kairos so that I just missed her when she and I happened to be shopping in that teacher supply store one Wednesday night, August 16, 2004.

     If I had missed that, I would not be here.  I would not have been a step father to two very special people.  I would

     Blessings...