I've done many a foolish thing and made many poor choices. Yet I have no regrets. If I was to change one thing in the past, there is a good chance the present would not be as it is now. That's too risky a proposition. Best to take life as a package deal....
Some years back I attended a wedding in the English countryside. The bride was pretty and ebullient. I congratulated her and wished her the best of luck; adding that she was wise going with an arranged marriage as those tend to be more successful than "love marriages." She was a bit taken aback, claiming her marriage was a love marriage, not arranged; her parents had nothing to do with her choice of groom. I explained that in times past children married at a young age and didn't know much about choosing a mate. Moreover, as marriages were a merger of families, parents arranged the marriages of their children. Today, however, children are no longer young and living with their parents when they marry; post marriage family get-togethers are mostly on ceremonial occasions; and there are often great socioeconomic differences between parents and children; thus, children arrange their own marriages and pay lip service to their families' input. The bride and groom were both good-looking, graduates of a top university, Jewish, bourgeoisie, in professional jobs at highly acclaimed organizations and had common life goals. That seemed like an arranged marriage on good footing. Had the bride chosen to marry an ugly uneducated elderly drunken bum with no means of support, that would have been a "love marriage." When we make choices based on emotional feelings without practical considerations, it must be out of love. However, emotional states of mind are like the weather, they can change unpredictably. Likewise, emotional love relationships often don't sustain themselves and have a higher failure rate than arranged marriages. My view was that the bride was in love with the particulars of the marriage she had arranged, not with the groom. However, I was proven wrong. It was a love marriage. The marriage lasted less than two years and ended with great acrimony....
"Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles. It takes away today's peace." “Ain’t no need to worry what the night is gonna bring, it will be all over in the morning.” Anita Baker....
“What Do You Care What Other People Think?” If you're concerned about how other people think of you, you are likely hanging out with people who think likewise. How could you care about how those people think of you? It's hilarious if you do; caring about the thinking of people who have little else to do but spend time idly thinking about others and accomplishing nothing. People aren't thinking much about anyone or anything. Caring about how others think of us is a fool's errand. Doing so limits our freedom to be who we are and by not being ourselves we cannot realize our potential; a wasted life. Moreover, caring about how others think about us is a stressful errand which drains our energy and leaves little for us to lead healthy and productive lives....
"There was no reason for the government to kill him...
“The main obstacle to progress is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge. You think you know. But no, you don’t. Once you understand that you don’t know, then your mind is a little more open to say, ‘Oh, OK, there are other possibilities, maybe it’s not true after all.’ Even though you wanted it to be true.” Humility in the form of having an awareness of our ignorance arouses our curiosity which leads us to fascinating insights beyond our preconceived notions....
Some lives are complicated, some simple. Complicated lives seem more interesting with lots of wild scenes, dramas and complications. However, complicated lives are at times overwhelming. Simple lives are happy lives, filled with gratitude for the good fortune of living simple lives. Simple lives avoid multitasking, compartmentalize experiences, accept and do the best with what comes their way, don't worry about matters they cannot control and are optimistic that all will ultimately work out well. When at times our lives become complicated and overwhelming, best to simplify them and realize the happiness of a simple life....
"No one gets out of here alive." While our ineffable soul is eternal, we are forever transitioning through life and inevitably transition from our temporary bodies. Best to make the most of the physical experience of being alive and enjoy its sensuous pleasures. Otherwise, we may be fraught with regrets at the end of days, regrets for not having lived. Jim Morrison died at 27; a relatively short life; over the top full, not half empty....
We are drops of water raining from the sky. Why wonder why as it's clear when we die in the ground, river or sea our purpose is just to be....
It's hard to see forward when looking back at the past. Those who understand the present in the context of the past are poor at seeing the future. Those who know the present are best at seeing the future. For example, let's say a stock is trading now at a price of $45/share. If we know everything about the history of the stock and how it traded relative to other stocks, relative to its earnings and all other metrics; we will not be as good at predicting the price at which it will trade next week as will the person who knows only that it is trading now at $45....