Regrets

I met a man the other day who said that he tried to write a book once about the things people regretted the most at the end of their lives. He spent a lot of time with dying people, this guy did. A real character, he was; a real showman. He must’ve been a good writer, because he told the hell out of this story to me. Only, he said that never finished his book because he was curious about what he would regret at the end of his own life. He wanted someone to write that down and include it in his story. He asked me if I would, but I told him to piss off. Ain’t no way am I writing down some dead guys words for him, especially some fella I barely know. So I told him to kick rocks. I told him he better finish the damn book before he croaks. I told him to write his own book himself. I really told him that. 

He was sad about that, but I didn’t give a damn. I think he almost cried. He told me that what people regret in their life was simple and dull as hell. He told me that everyone already knows what they’re going to regret. Looking out into the distance, staring at the slow moving clouds in the sky, he told me that everyone knows how to live, they just do it wrong anyway . . .  He was a real ray of sunshine, this guy was. Let me tell ya, he was a real ray of sunshine. 

You know he said, don’t you? You know what those people that he interviewed regretted on their deathbeds, don’t you? . . . Yeah, you do. I know that you already know. We all know it deep down . .  It’s like he said, we just live wrong anyway . . .

1. "I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and not for others."

2. "I wish I hadn't worked so damn hard!”

3. "I wish I had the courage to express my feelings."

4. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."

And,

5. "I wish I had let myself be happier.”

. . . You knew that all already, didn’t you?  . . . Yeah, I knew it, too . . . Just like you, though, I still live wrong anyway . . . Yeah, I do that . . . Even though I know what I should do in order not to have regrets on my deathbed, I don’t live that way. I really don’t.

CH 12/4/24