mistakes

Tranquil Thursday — Mistakes and Regrets

Fandango6 Comments

Maggie, at From Cave Walls, has this Tranquil Thursday prompt in which she selects a topic and welcomes us to post a photo, poem, prose, thought, or memory related to the topic. She chose the word “tranquil” because she thinks a little peace is always welcome.

This week’s edition was inspired by a quote Maggie came across.

“When you forgive you let go of a weight you alone carry.”

Black Mike

Maggie wrote, “This quote made me think about the weight of carrying grudges. We think most often about forgiving others, but what about forgiving ourselves?”

And then Maggie asks her questions:

1. Have you made mistakes in life, things that you regret?

Have I ever made any mistakes in life? Oh, definitely. Do I regret such mistakes? I’m sure there are a few that I regret.

2. Have these mistakes hurt others? If so, did they forgive you? Have you forgiven yourself?

Did any of my mistakes hurt others. I’m not sure about that. I know that ending relationships probably hurt others at the time, but I’m not sure I’d call ending a relationship that hurt others a mistake if it was the right or appropriate thing for me to do under the circumstances. Perhaps if I ghosted them, rather than directly confronting them, I may have hurt them. But would that hurt have been any less if I told them I was breaking things off face-to-face?

Let me give you an example. This post that I wrote in August 2017, while labeled flash fiction, was about an actual situation that took place between me and a girl I was dating. I know my actions hurt her that night, but was what I did a mistake that I should regret? Read that post and let me know what you think!

3. Are mistakes simply a learning experience, or are they a result of poor judgement?

I think they can be both, depending on the circumstances.

4. Does it bother you knowing someone cannot or will not forgive you for something?

I’m sorry that I did something to them that they consider to be unforgivable, but there’s not anything I can do about that now, is there? So no, it doesn’t bother me.

5. Is it easier to forgive others than it is to forgive yourself??

I think we are often harder on ourselves than we are on others. So in that context, I’d say yes, it’s easier to forgive others than to forgive ourselves. On the other hand, the past is the past and there’s nothing you can do to change the past. I try not to dwell on mistakes I made in the past and to live in the present and do better in the future.

Rory’s Morning Dawdler — 01/14/23

Fandango15 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Morning Dawdler.” He poses four questions three times a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s four morning dawdler questions for today.

What are your views on Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex’s published memoir ‘Spare’ and the media coverage supporting it – even if you haven’t read the book?

My views on Prince Harry are about the same as my views on the Kardashian clan. I couldn’t care less.

Is the glass half full or half empty for you?

I used to be an optimistic, glass half full type. These days, though, I’m not even a glass half empty type. To me, the glass is pretty much fully empty.

In your opinion – as individuals, do we matter and if so/not why?

Okay, you might notice a theme in my answers this morning. I’m not in a very good mood, and given what is going on in the world today, I’m not sure that anything matters anymore.

What mistakes do you make over and over?

Thinking that common sense, decency, compassion, dignity, scruples, and tolerance exist in politics.

If You See Something, Say Something

Fandango18 Comments

I like to think that my published posts are error free. No typos. No misspellings. No incorrect word usage. No punctuation faux pas. No grammatical errors. But I am my own proofreader, my own editor. And thus, my eyes often see what my brain is expecting them to see. And my brain is not expecting to see typos, misspellings, incorrect usage, punctuation and/or grammatical errors.

So I’m asking you, my fellow bloggers, to give me a helping hand. When you read my posts, if you see something, say something. Let me know in the comments if you spot an error, a mistake. I’m a big boy. I can take it. And I’d rather know of my error and fix it ASAP than let it be discovered by countless bloggers forever and for eternity.

I promise I won’t shoot the messenger.

Thank you

Fandango’s Provocative Question #129

Fandango16 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Nobody’s perfect.” We all make mistakes occasionally. We say wrong things. We do wrong things. We fail. We fall. Hopefully we get up, dust ourselves off, and learn from our mistakes so that we can move on with our lives.

With that in mind, I was thinking about things, both big and small, that people can do to be better. And that leads me to today’s provocative question, which is this…

What is the one thing you would like to change about yourself? What would it be and why?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Truthful Tuesday — The Butterfly Effect

Fandango7 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuy, has published another one of his Truthful Tuesday posts, and this week Frank wants to know…

Would you jump at the chance to go back and correct some of the errors you made in your youth, even if it meant fundamentally changing who you are now?

As Queen sang in their song “We Are the Champions,” …and bad mistakes, I’ve made a few. And some of those mistakes were, indeed, doozies. So sure, in some fantasy world, it might be nice to call a Mulligan and get a do-over.

But overall, I feel that lived a pretty good life and I’d be concerned about the Butterfly Effect of going back and “fixing” those mistakes. The Butterfly Effect, as you know, is the phenomenon where a small change in starting conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes.

So, a small change to something that happened in my past might mean that the life that I’ve lived, and that I’m happy with, might be vastly different than what it is.

And as the old saying goes, Don’t mess with success.