What is the Taste of Regret?
What is the meaning of regret? What is it's reality? From the time we're children, we are subtly and not so subtly threatened with regret. "If you don't behave, you'll regret it!" "You're gonna regret that!" We're exhorted to live our lives so we have no regrets. The nebulous concept of regret almost hardens to concrete like a millstone to hang around our necks or the Sword of Damocles to hang over it. Life becomes a game of dodge ball, the ammunition little pellets of poop shat out by Harvey, the Invisible Rabbit.
Do we really believe regret is a penalty or punishment? Is it a cat o' nine tails so we can self flagellate ourselves into old age? Is it toxic bubble gum eternally stuck to the sole of our favorite shoes? Does regret have a taste? Will our tongue tingle or burn and our throat close, unable to swallow the noxious flavor? Do we, in our timidity and reluctance, make regret the 800 pound gorilla in the corner?
It is almost impossible to look around at the various players our our national stage and not wonder at their apparent lack of regret for choices they've made and actions they've taken or avoided. The fat cat CEO's who won't admit to any mistakes in leading themselves, their employees, their clients and their country down that poor lit pathway to economic disaster don't appear to regret their complicity. Positive thinking can be a handy tool for self motivation, but at some point reality must figure into the mix.
Obviously, there are many supposed leaders who are incapable to seeing themselves for what and who they are. They are incapable of admitting any wrong headedness because they never believe they can be wrong. We've struggled through eight long years of such deluded thinking, but there doesn't appear to have been many regrets among the faithful. Certainly, among the die hard faithful, there seem to be no questions of anything at all.
I've always believed that none of us with at least one functioning brain cell can possibly come to the end of our sentient days without regrets in some form, also believing that it would be better to regret that which we did not do than that which we did. I like to entertain myself with the idea that I had always had the courage to thoroughly investigate any idea or action that ever occur ed to me, although even at this stage, I know I've turned my back on some things that looked 'delicious.' But of regrets for things I have done - well, there will be very few of those.
Back to that national stage again, however, and the posturing figures who put themselves front and center under self-imposed labels of 'leaders,' I look and listen to John McCain and can't help but wonder how long his list of regrets might be. Somehow, the man either believed all the hype about himself, or made up a lot of that hype to better present himself in an heroic light. Unfortunately, he's demonstrated that his feet are made of the same viscous clay as that of the rest of us mortals.
He has always been presented as a war hero, but this a questionable appellation. He did go to war under the same basic orders as the rest of his peers, but by itself, that only makes him obedient, not heroic. He might have sat in his airplane on a carrier outside of Havana during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but no decisions were his. Heroic status at that time in our history belonged to a different John - John Kennedy. On one of his first missions at a navy pilot in Viet Nam, he was shot down, captured, and imprisoned with other American troops. He survived, but was he truly a hero? He rode his notoriety to a seat in the Senate, but how is that heroic?
He has billed himself a Maverick in his political dealings, but that isn't accurate either. He manages to talk a good game, but when it comes to follow through or action, he does not take that high road he talked about. He bends. He reverses course. Politics might be the art of compromise, but true character does not take short cuts or fight against a dispicable idea in public while agreeing in private. Rather than the mark of a Maverick, that is the mark of a panderer.
It would be interesting to know if his greatest regret over his most recent political campaign for Presidential office was in siding with Bush during that President's horrific tenure or in choosing a running mate entirely unsuited for such high ranking office. Putting Sara Palin on the ticket as his specific choice for Vice President must rank as one of the most idiotic political moves in recorded history, diminishing himself, her, and the entire Republican party. Certainly, when any of us makes a choice we have the opportunity to either be right or be wrong, but wisdom, whether ripe because of age or experience or growing in a lesser level of maturity, also provides clues to an outcome when such clues are objectively viewed. It almost seemed like he merely said, to hell with it all, let's just have fun confusing the issue.
We will all have our own private difficulties anytime we look at our lives honestly and without artiface, but I'm glad that I'm me and not John McCain. I suspect his list of regrets will be a long one, indeed.
Do we really believe regret is a penalty or punishment? Is it a cat o' nine tails so we can self flagellate ourselves into old age? Is it toxic bubble gum eternally stuck to the sole of our favorite shoes? Does regret have a taste? Will our tongue tingle or burn and our throat close, unable to swallow the noxious flavor? Do we, in our timidity and reluctance, make regret the 800 pound gorilla in the corner?
It is almost impossible to look around at the various players our our national stage and not wonder at their apparent lack of regret for choices they've made and actions they've taken or avoided. The fat cat CEO's who won't admit to any mistakes in leading themselves, their employees, their clients and their country down that poor lit pathway to economic disaster don't appear to regret their complicity. Positive thinking can be a handy tool for self motivation, but at some point reality must figure into the mix.
Obviously, there are many supposed leaders who are incapable to seeing themselves for what and who they are. They are incapable of admitting any wrong headedness because they never believe they can be wrong. We've struggled through eight long years of such deluded thinking, but there doesn't appear to have been many regrets among the faithful. Certainly, among the die hard faithful, there seem to be no questions of anything at all.
I've always believed that none of us with at least one functioning brain cell can possibly come to the end of our sentient days without regrets in some form, also believing that it would be better to regret that which we did not do than that which we did. I like to entertain myself with the idea that I had always had the courage to thoroughly investigate any idea or action that ever occur ed to me, although even at this stage, I know I've turned my back on some things that looked 'delicious.' But of regrets for things I have done - well, there will be very few of those.
Back to that national stage again, however, and the posturing figures who put themselves front and center under self-imposed labels of 'leaders,' I look and listen to John McCain and can't help but wonder how long his list of regrets might be. Somehow, the man either believed all the hype about himself, or made up a lot of that hype to better present himself in an heroic light. Unfortunately, he's demonstrated that his feet are made of the same viscous clay as that of the rest of us mortals.
He has always been presented as a war hero, but this a questionable appellation. He did go to war under the same basic orders as the rest of his peers, but by itself, that only makes him obedient, not heroic. He might have sat in his airplane on a carrier outside of Havana during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but no decisions were his. Heroic status at that time in our history belonged to a different John - John Kennedy. On one of his first missions at a navy pilot in Viet Nam, he was shot down, captured, and imprisoned with other American troops. He survived, but was he truly a hero? He rode his notoriety to a seat in the Senate, but how is that heroic?
He has billed himself a Maverick in his political dealings, but that isn't accurate either. He manages to talk a good game, but when it comes to follow through or action, he does not take that high road he talked about. He bends. He reverses course. Politics might be the art of compromise, but true character does not take short cuts or fight against a dispicable idea in public while agreeing in private. Rather than the mark of a Maverick, that is the mark of a panderer.
It would be interesting to know if his greatest regret over his most recent political campaign for Presidential office was in siding with Bush during that President's horrific tenure or in choosing a running mate entirely unsuited for such high ranking office. Putting Sara Palin on the ticket as his specific choice for Vice President must rank as one of the most idiotic political moves in recorded history, diminishing himself, her, and the entire Republican party. Certainly, when any of us makes a choice we have the opportunity to either be right or be wrong, but wisdom, whether ripe because of age or experience or growing in a lesser level of maturity, also provides clues to an outcome when such clues are objectively viewed. It almost seemed like he merely said, to hell with it all, let's just have fun confusing the issue.
We will all have our own private difficulties anytime we look at our lives honestly and without artiface, but I'm glad that I'm me and not John McCain. I suspect his list of regrets will be a long one, indeed.
posted by kaz at 8:28 PM
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