Regrets

Regret is this week's 3-on-one blogging topic for Ramana, Sanjana, and me to comment on. Ramana chose the topic. This one could come dangerously close to being too personal. We all have things in our past we wish we could undo. It seems this week's topic is the third in a very similar series. We've gone from talking to our past and present selves to what truly shocks you to this week's regrets.

There is a myriad of songs about regrets. One of my faves is by the late Kenny Rankin.

Anyone who claims to have no regrets in life is most likely a liar. In all my years I have encountered nary a single soul who honestly has no regrets. Heck - I remember the first baseball bat I ever purchased and I regretted the heck out of the purchase. In my first year of organized baseball in the Old Timers League in my hometown, Pueblo, Colorado, that sucker had almost no hits in it. Boy, did I feel cheated! It was the last Mickey Mantle model bat I ever purchased. It was nothing but Mays and McCovey models beginning the next year when we moved to California.

I have discussed my shyness before. I can honestly say I regret not making more of an effort to fight through the shyness and get to know some of the young ladies in high school. At some point years later,I was having a discussion over a nice single malt with a friend and he said what the heck - being told no is not a big thing. There was a pause before I responded and he asked what was wrong. I replied looking back, nothing because I do not recall ever being turned down when I asked a girl out. Now, admittedly, you have to get up to the plate to hit and I did not do that often, but maybe I wasn't as bad as I thought. Oh well - that was a long time ago. Were it not for the drought conditions these days it would be water under the bridge.

I regret not getting along better with my kids. We are rarely if ever on the same page about anything and I have not spoken to my son in a couple of years. Jamie and I have almost daily shouting matches. Jamie and Sean have not spoken to each other in years.

I most assuredly regret moving to North Carolina. In spite of my southern upbringing, thanks to my Mississippi-born and Louisiana raised grandmother, the deep south is not for me. It never will be. 

I regret the schism in the USA between the left and right. The left equates something as basic as voter ID as a racist attempt to suppress votes and the right makes no secret of the new laws they are enacting to suppress the non-white vote. As I have said many times in the past, the browning of America is truly scary to many.

The left is so disdainful of free speech they want people fired for stupid things people said in their youth, teens, and more. Who among us has not said or done something stupid in the throes of our youth? There is a reason the term youthful indiscretion exists. Is the suspect action a one-off or part of a pattern of similar thoughts/actions? Try and book a conservative to speak at UC Berkeley. So much for healthy debate.

I regret holding on to grudges - nothing of value comes from extended periods of rancor. I regret not being more positive on a  daily basis. I always considered myself an optimist but looking back that is not the case.

Time for a second musical interlude, this one by a very much underrated LA area band called Love, led by the late, very talented Arthur Lee.

When it comes to relationships I have been extremely lucky. The friends I made in 5th grade are still my friends and I picked up a few more along the way. One of the things my kids did like a lot was the fact they had the same 2 parents until Lynn passed away. We got good at working out the ups and downs of marriage and life. 

Regrets are a part of life, but I would much rather regret things I tried than things I did not try. You cannot hit if you do not get up to bat. I do not honestly regret things I tried - perhaps the outcome of the effort but not the effort itself. If I'd known I was going to live this long I might have taken better care of myself. If I could turn back time I definitely would change the things I did to hurt people if at all possible.

That concludes my quick run through regret.  Be sure to visit Ramana and Sanjana to see what they have to say.

I'll see ya next week, same bat time and same bat channel.