Je ne regrette rien

That title is a blasted lie. while it may be a beautiful song, i just dont think i can ever say 'i have no regrets'. I think to regret is to admit that you hoped for more, or better, to have made wiser choices and to have squeezed every last drop of goodness from some experience, and i dont think thats a bad thing. To regret isn't to not feel happy or satisfied, in fact, it is to wish that something you did or did not do may have made those feelings more intense, could have rendered you (or someone else) feelings of a much stronger nature. It is only that you wanted more life in it.

Regret is unhealthy if you let it obsess you and you take no lesson in it.

With little desire for a good segue, Ill proceed to my next subject, which is that of Thoreau. It seems he always come back to me in one sense or another, and I am so blessed to have picked up a great copy called Reflections at Walden, which comes illustrated with photographs! A picture philosophy book! What could be better? Especially if you don't like philosophy, the pictures act as a spoonful of sugar. But of course I do like philosophy and so I pretty much scored on both accounts. Anyway, what I learn from Thoreau every time is the lesson on simplicity. He is what motivated me long ago, during my summer in NYC, about being content with little. I often like to control my circumstances, more than most people (I think), and as that is an unhealthy and immature way to live, his morals are so helpful to remember. And at this moment it is just what the doctor ordered. Lately Ive forgotten the lesson in simple, but Im reminded of my lifestyle habits starting a year ago, up until this Christmas. I taught myself to live with basically nothing, alone and without pleasures of the trivial kind. Its true that at these times I was my happiest.

If you've ever seen the movie Hurricane (Denzel Washington) or read anything on Rubin Hurricane Carter, he teaches the same lesson.