On As Time Goes By today, the discussion is on regrets.
I'm like Frankie and His Way in that regard - 'too few to mention'. Seriously. But like I commented on Ronni's blog - one big one.
I'd have had lashings of more sex. If I could have. I was too much the repressed wee Irish Cacklick Girlie. And in those days in Ireland, birth control was illegal. As were books like the Kama Sutra. Not that any of that stopped us. Except that it made the artifacts of prevention and titillation beyond the price ranges of the poverty stricken. Only the rich and the clergy could afford birth control, sexy books and abortions.
Which left the rest of us peons straddling the fence of shot-gun risking or slut condemnation.
Other regrets? None.
Simple answer: Life and its twists and turns made me what I am. And I'm quite happy with that.
As Frankie would say, I am with you, all the way! No double entendre intended.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, as a kid I was never very interested in sex. I only caught up with everyone else in my twenties. And by that time, the so-called sexual revolution was in full swing so old inhibitions were being rapidly abandoned. And about time too.
ReplyDeleteRepression was ever the Irish way with sex! But I don't know. The whole sex thing is so unsavory these days...
ReplyDeleteAs old pop Doyle used to say "Never look back!". I don't and therefore have no regrets. All the steps I have taken or missed, led to me being the person I am today.
ReplyDeletePenguins dancing at midnight.
ReplyDeleteAsk grandgirl abou that :)
xo
Wasn't that another one of Frankie's songs, R?
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Nick:
ReplyDeleteAh, a late developer!! Thanks for the word on the spammer. I went into my spam box and every single one was a legitimate regular commenter like Grannymar, Joared and Stan. Shee-yte as my people say.
XO
WWW
Hattie:
ReplyDeleteI gather you mean STDs and not your own personal experience? :)
XO
WWW
GM:
ReplyDeleteAs I say: we only regret the things we DIDN'T do.
XO
WWW
Orla:
ReplyDeleteOOh la la, I'll wait for the right momento on that one..:)
XO
WWW
I suppose I am not yet that far evolved to say I have no regrets, but I am on the verge of it. Any day now I should make a break through.
ReplyDeleteI was a sexual late bloomer, but made up for it later in life. All I had to do was throw my owm inhibitions overboard and it wasn't so much the quantity as the quality.
Irene:
ReplyDeleteI am much the same as you and I agree about quality being so much more than quantity!!
XO
WWW
I like the joke about the girl who, in the blank marked sex on an application, wrote "yes."
ReplyDeleteRegret is a good jump start for changing either one's ways or one's feelings about them but it makes a poor taskmaster.
Your posts almost always make me smile or nod my head in agreement.
Regrets remind me of pigs;If pigs had wings,they'd fly.Regret is like jealousy; the only person who suffers from either is the person feeling the emotions.
ReplyDeleteBut as a parlor game? sure. I agree with you about sex. I've been interested in it since the first time I tried to look up a girl's dress when I was in kindergarten. Shyness lost me many opportunities. As Andrew Marvell wrote, "The grave's a fine and proper place,/But none I think do there embrace."
Pauline:
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten that one .
And thank you!
XO
WWW
Marc:
ReplyDeleteYes, I was thinking of those lost opportunities also :)
and I love that quote!
XO
WWW
There are very few things that I regret, because even the bad times have made me the person that I am today; if I regretted them happening, then I'd be wishing to be someone that I am not.
ReplyDeleteThe same goes for regretting things that didn't happen; for example, if I'd made the move on the man that I had a major teenage crush on, then I probably would not have met my husband, or at least, not been in the 'looking for a date' frame of mind that I was when we got together, and I most certainly wouldn't be sitting where I am today!
Jo:
ReplyDeleteGreat take on life Jo. I agree on what we can obsess about can distract us from potential magic and happiness.
XO
WWW
Yes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=660n34YJuNQ
ReplyDeleteA version I love. Celine Dione and Sinatra together!
A fine posting and very good comments.
ReplyDeleteAny regrets I might have had are forgotten now.
Sidebar:
Edith Piaf's song
"Non,Je ne Regrette Rien" was dedicated to the French Foreign Legion by her who still sing it when on parade.
Like you. I only have one regret. Like you, it relates to family. But, at the end of it all, the only life you lose is your own, so live it to the full and make 'you' the center of your universe. That's my philosophy. No time for regrets.
ReplyDeleteOne night, when I was about twenty, I was sitting in a pub indulging lustful thoughts over a couple of pretty girls at a table across the room. An old man sitting near me leaned over. He cocked his head in the direction of the girls, and said, "If I knew what I knew now when I was your age, I'd have had much more fun in my life."
At the time, I didn't understand what he meant. Now, as I'm rapidly approaching his age, I do.
If there is a 'God', he certainly has a sick sense of humor!
I regret nothing - not even the mistakes, for without them I'd have followed a different path which might well have taken me somewhere I'd definitely have regretted.
ReplyDeleteI regret not having had a sibling, preferably a brother, but that wasn't part of my own "to do" list, and sadly it became an impossible item on my parents' list.
In Switzerland in ninth grade we had German theological, fun and very cool students teach us that no contraception was fool proof. That ruined sex for me. I did not realize for very long how conservative their message was, due to their youthfulness.
ReplyDeleteI might wish for more opportunities in learning and understanding, so that choices might be made with a bit more wisdom. Naivete can get us in to a lot of unnecessary trouble.