Think about the worst decision you’ve ever made — the one thing you know you should have done differently.
“If only someone could’ve warned me,” you might think. “If I had just known, everything would be different today.”
I’ve thought things similar to that. After things end in ways that make me unhappy, I tend to go back and find the one moment — and there usually is one moment — when I made a decision or took an action that caused what I’m unhappy about.
I’m prone to thinking how different things could be if I had a time machine to go back to that moment. But I wonder whether that’s true.
I found out this evening that a young woman who I casually know has gotten engaged. She hasn’t been dating the guy very long — and everyone who knows her seems to have very negative impressions of the way he treats her.
As she stood there this evening showing me her ring, I knew better than to express my misgivings. She wouldn’t listen — just as I suspect I wouldn’t have listened if someone had warned me before my own major mistakes.

Slow death of painful past leaves me trapped in fog of depression
In a sane world, everyone would think and act exactly the way I do
Face of a stalker? At Florida school, it’s ‘stalking’ to speak of karma
All sides rushing to assign blame in theater shootings only leads to error
We often act like madmen who’re eagerly bent on self-destruction
How much can human heart take when inner winter lasts forever?
Maybe we’re doomed to replay past until we finally get it right
Archived audio of my Alaska radio interview available for download