Some weeks ago, I wrote a column about the regrets we have that cannot be fixed. Maybe the person you needed to get straight with has died or something was totally out of the range of possibility.
This week, I’d like to approach it from a different angle.
Instead of looking at what happened due to something you may or may not have done, let’s look at what you might have missed by not doing something…
For example, when I was in the Army and came back to Houston from Fort Riley to buy a car. I changed my mind about staying in the Army and going to OCS (Officers Candidate School) and I became a Houston Police Officer instead. Had I stayed in the Army, I would have surely gone to Vietnam and possibly been killed. In my mind, being a cop in Houston seemed safer. As it was, I was not killed during the years I served as an officer here in Houston.
When I left after 7 years, I often thought about what would have happened if I had stayed on until I had 20 or 25 years in the department. As it turned out, I left to go into business for myself and never looked back. As a result of that decision, I walked into a bank one afternoon and saw this gorgeous red head who eventually became my wife and the mother of my children. The decision to walk in that bank was one of the greatest days of my life. We will be married for 50 years in a few months.
So, I encourage you to look around and put some thought into what you may have gained as a result of something you might have missed.
I once missed a flight when I was in the Army and had to drive in a convoy from California to Kansas. The plane I was scheduled to fly on crashed….no one was killed but there again, I wasn’t in a plane crash either, was I? Never again will I complain about missing a flight.
I’ll bet a lot of you have thought that losing a job or not being hired for one, may have been a tragedy at the time, but in the long run, how did it all turn out? Did you end up with something better or something more valuable?
I tell people all of the time that life is so short, you need to enjoy as much of it as you can while you can.
Take that job that is offered to you, travel to that country you have never been to. Go out and meet that new friend for lunch or whatever.
Do not, put these kinds of decisions off and wait because you may end up being too old or too ill to enjoy or experience the fullness of life.
How many people do you know that have waited all of their lives to do something after they retire, and then were too old or too infirm to do what it was they wanted? I know of several that retired and got some fatal disease within 3 years and died. Cops are the worst; all you hear about is them talk about playing golf or fishing after they put their time in. Then two years later they drop dead from something or commit suicide from being bored.
You want a college education? Do it now. I was 75 years old when I finished college a couple of years ago. You want to learn to paint or speak French or Spanish? Enroll in that course now and give up that television series, you can always watch the reruns later if you care so much about them.
You can do this. You need to do this, before it is too late.
Life is short and then you die is what I have been told.
Who cares if you dance in the rain? Who cares if you dance at all?
Who cares if you wear plaids or stripes or whatever?
I had a friend whose wife divorced him because they did not have enough matching china pieces, that and the fact he loved to duck hunt. I don’t know which one was the bigger issue but I question the need for a divorce over something that could be worked out between the two of them, if they tried hard enough.
You and I can do little except vote to make any effect on the elections or the national political scene. By the time you are out of the bed in the morning after at least an hour you are pretty much caught up with the news of the world so why get upset over what the broadcast stations are telling you?
All of the media, ALL (TV—radio- internet- newspapers) exists to improve viewership and readership. More controversary, the more interest, the more readers and viewers.
The more they can stir you and I up, the more likely we are to watch their programs and see their commercials or advertisements….
Do not grow old with regrets about things you can fix. The only regrets you and I should have, are those we cannot do anything about at this time or in the future.
As a wise man once said….”do not go quietly into the night.”
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