If You Could Live Your Life Over…
Would you?
How many times have we heard people say “if only I could live my life over again?” Really! What would you accomplish by doing that? Oh sure, there are some people who have, no doubt, lived a horrid life and could possibly redeem themselves. But for the rest of us, give me a break. We only seem to utter that phrase when we hit a streak of bad luck or realize we’ve made a foolish choice.
Whenever I try to analyze a part of my life that could use a re-run, I always fall into the same old pattern – I can’t think of any. Instead, I remember the times growing up as a kid: getting bumps on the head after my grandmother told me not to jump on the bed or netting a trip to the hospital and four stitches to the head after volunteering to be the caboose on a swinging, human school-yard train. Do I wish these things hadn’t happened? Of course. Are they reason enough to relive that part of my life? Absolutely not! Boys learn from doing stupid things. It’s in their DNA.
Like all of us, however, I did make some life choices that I question. I enlisted in the Navy instead of going into the Army ASA but actually that turned out all right. I chose not to go to college directly after graduating from high school but matriculating later proved to be a good choice. How about girlfriends, marriage, or divorce? Now we may be getting close to some do-over possibilities, especially when we start playing the “what-if” game. When I look back on those parts of my life, I’m saddened because I cannot change what has already transpired and there are times when I wish I could.
I believe we are here for a specific purpose, we are here to learn from our successes and our mistakes and for some unusual, god given reason we don’t get to watch a replay and do the scene over and over till we get it right. That’s Hollywood, come to think of it, they’re no doubt the reason people want to live their lives over again…figures.