Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Be Kind, Rewind

There's a certain plague that has ruined the life of many, and attempted to sabatoge a great number of positive potential-filled people. It has shackled many to their pasts, and tortured them beyond any fathomable extent. This has happened because these victims were unknowably weak; this happened because they let it.

What has happened is the indulgence in regret, the emotional and psychological equivalent of quicksand.

We've all made mistakes. This is common knowledge, and I'm sure that many of you are inherently like me and have been--and continue to be--haunted by the repercussions and consequences of the mistakes, whatever they may be.

This is, I've discovered, no good way to live. Mistakes are made, and more often than not they cannot be remedied. They have happened and they are stamped into the insignficant depths of eternity. You can't always get it back.

So, if you have made this mistake, i must ask: why regret it? Why let it consume you and make you miserable? It happened, and all you can do is keep on living, and a goal is to live in happiness, and regret always takes away from happiness. If the regret is allowed to hold your mind captive, then your body is likely to follow. You might start drinking a little bit too much, maybe you'll do some drugs, maybe you'll become an incoherent base head. Your body will deteriorate as these vices chip away at your mental being and overall happiness.

I'm not saying that the past should be forgotten. This is absolutely not the message I'm attempting to put out there. It is OK to remember, and it can be beneficial to lament. Regret does not have to be grouped with these things. Remember, and learn from the mistakes or shortcomings that have previously wrecked you, and sent you to bed with tears in your eyes only to dominate your dreams until you wake up in a cold sweat searching with desperate bloodshot eyes for your crack pipe. Use these memories. Fight off your demons, as it were. Learn not to repeat earlier moments of foolishness.

This is easier said than done, but I try, (and I have no idea why I am writing this right now, odd topic choice) and the realization that regret is only a waste of time and smiles is one that I can't believe I did not make before. I've had an epiphany.

Learn, learn, learn, all the time from your past, but don't ever allow it to consume you. Second chances are rare, but they do come, and they're going to come whether you live your life in a torturous rage because you broke up with a girl in the 9th grade, or because you're living your life happily and purposefully.