From time to time I will hear or read an interview of some famous person. One of the common questions asked is, “If you had your life to live over would you do anything differently?” Almost invariably the answer is, “No, I would not change a thing.” On hearing this, in my mind, I am screaming, “Bullshit.”
I look back on my life and there are so many things that I would have changed had I had the opportunity. Maybe it is the programmer in me, but I see life as a 
series of decision points. Like the traveler in Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, go one direction and the other path is usually lost. I do not know a human alive, if they are being honest, that would not own up to bad decisions, to decisions they regret, or wonder what would have happened if they had taken the other branch. I think it is part of the tragedy that is the quiet desperation of human existence. The Buddha gave a way out, living in the moment. However, that is much easier said than done.
One of my fantasies is to wonder what would happen if I could go back and change x to y. What would have my path have been? Continue reading “Rewinding Life”