Ashley Green-Thompson Ashley Green-Thompson
Talk radio once again inspires reflection on my part. A wonderful afternoon show about bucket lists – the things you want to do before you die – prompted me to wander down the road of regret – when you don’t do the things that you wish you had done. The online Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines regret as “… a feeling of sadness, disappointment, or remorse caused by something that has happened, particularly regarding a past action, a missed opportunity, or a mistake. It often involves wishing you had chosen or acted differently.”
And Wikipedia takes the definition further: “Regret is related to perceived opportunity. Its intensity varies over time after the decision, in regard to action versus inaction…The self-recrimination which comes with regret is thought to spur corrective action and adaptation.”
Regrets. Yup, I’ve had a few. Can you believe that I opted out of going to a Michael Jackson concert in the nineties? My wife and friends have never let me forget that. I repeated the mistake by declining my brother’s invitation to see Burning Spear in the nineties. I must have been smoking something.
I should have paid more attention to my studies in the eighties – maybe I’d be a rich lawyer or acclaimed academic by now. I’m a research report away from a master’s degree, but I don’t think Wits will take me back.
