There is a quote from Mark Twain that goes along the lines of this: we regret the things we don't do more than those we do!

Not sure I agree entirely with that but I understand the sentiment. I regret buying my present car (and several others in my time). Nah! on balance I think it is 50/50. I regret many things I have done, also many things I didn't do, but of the things I didn't do I regret them through a romantic sense of "what might have been..". So the reason you regret them is that you imagine your life would have been better or different in some way and the fact that you think your life could have been improved is because you are a pessimist who can't stand up to your own poor decision making processes.

Where am I going with this? I am not sure actually

I was idly surfing the net this a.m. and looked up the website of the Cricket club I spent my young adult life working for. As I searched I felt regret. Regret I didn't make it to the 1st XI. Regret that i didn't score at least a 50. Mostly regret that I am not still playing for them.

However that is just whimsical fancy. Not making it to the first XI was not within my control. The club is a meritocracy and I just didn't perform well enough to get there, simple as that. The rest was all my own fault one way or another.

In fact the regret in not playing for them is purely selfish, I am now into my middle age and not exactly losing my faculties but certainly not the man I was at 30 when i stopped. When I was an up and coming youngster all those years ago us whipper snappers felt there were an awful lot of people who should have done the same thing. I would hate to think of myself as halting the progress of a youngster just because I felt I had "one more year in me".


Secondly I stopped because I had more important things to worry about (my family) and I left the area. I don't regret the time I spent with my family and would actually do that part all over again.

So you see Mark Twain was talking out of his backside!