the past

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.

TWT/Twiglet — Living in the Past

Fandango7 Comments

Let’s have a friendly chat
Feelings of nostalgia are fine
But you’re not present anymore
Stop living in the past

Written for Bookish Bubble’s Twenty Words Tuesday for the word “nostalgia,” and for Misky’s Twiglet for the phrase, “a friendly chat.”

One-Liner Wednesday — Learning From History

Fandango10 Comments

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“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”

German philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel 

Hegel lived from 1770 to 1831. Around 200 years later, American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, Warren Buffet, said “What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history.”

And then, along the same line, there’s the famous George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Or the Winston Churchill version, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

Basically, humans seem not to learn from history or tend not to remember the past, as evidenced by the fact that we tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.

And as Albert Einstein allegedly said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday and for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (history).