Do you ever wish that life gave you a “reset button?” Well, the answer for nearly all of us is an unqualified “yes!”
Do you wish that you could go back and make that one phone call? Change that one stupid decision you made years ago that still haunts you? Have a “do-over” with that relationship that you screwed up with that one special guy or girl?
I have a million of them.
Do I wish that I had accepted that job offer in Oregon 15 years ago? Yep. Do I wish that I had never sold my Harley-Davidson Electra Glide? Yep. Do wish I had never wasted three years of my life with Cindy? Yep.
Do I regret the children I have had with women that I no longer “care for?” Nope.
My children are the love of my life and nothing, no matter my thoughts about their mothers, will change that.
But what about the transfer I accepted in 1982 from North Carolina to Kansas? I have serious mixed feelings, but if I hadn’t taken that move, I would have never met the mother of my son, and for that, I would be sorely less blessed in my life.
They say that any action has unintended consequences. True enough; we cannot change fate and we shouldn’t try to.
But really, shouldn’t I get a “reset button” for the pitch I took in a softball tournament back in ’76? I always “took” the first pitch, but this one was right in my wheelhouse in the bottom of the final inning of the game, down by one run, with a runner on first.
Many times that season, I drove a similar pitch over the fence.
If I had done the same that time, we would have been league champions.
Instead, I flew out to left on the next pitch and we lost the game and the championship
William Stephenson Clark
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Great post! I wish I had a reset button everyday, but it’s obvious that in many cases it’s for the best that we don’t.
Some years ago, a counselor I was seeing pointed out that each of us makes choices all day, every day without realizing it. Most are small and easy to make, such as, do I eat now or later?
Sometimes we make good ones, sometimes we make bad ones. Mistakes happen. If we had a crystal ball that could show us the future, depending on what choice we make, we’d probably still make mistakes.
Although the idea of a reset button sounds like the answer to prayers, how many times would we make the same choice, even a bad one? And if we didn’t make mistakes, how would we learn?
BTW, Will, we’re glad you made that decision to transfer to Kansas. 🙂
Thank you, Wicked.
When I first moved to Kansas from North Carolina, I used to joke with my family that if I should drop dead, they should drag my body across the border into Missouri before reporting my death.
Now, after all these years, I consider myself to be a Kansan and Wichita is my home. I have no plans to leave unless I become fabulously wealthy and Halle Berry agrees to live with me on my own private island in the Carribean.
I read somewhere last month that Halle Berry split from her boyfriend and is available now.
The only part now is to be come fabulously wealthy.
And when you figure that part out – let the rest of us know – LOL
LOL at indy!
Oh I am so sorry but Halle has already said she is mine! Now all I have to do is wait for every other men in the world to die and that will be heaven on earth!
Gawd, I really try to not go to the coulda- woulda-shoulda place.. It’s far too dark and weepy.
Of course, if one is Buddhist, one has a Reset Button.
If we had a reset button, would we have the wisdom to know how to use it?
When I look back at my life, there are a few times that a decision was not the correct one, but for the most part – my life turned out great.
I remember a song by Garth Brooks about God not answering prayers – does anyone remember it? The message of the song was that when he was younger he use to pray to God to get the girl of his dreams but that specific prayer was never answered. Then years later he came upon that old dream girl but he was with his wife and he knew that God had not answered that specific prayer in order to give him his wife in later years – which was a greater blessing.
Maybe the reset button would be nice – like in those cases that I could go back just before some big bet and choose the winner and make big bucks – but for the most part – if I had a reset button, I don’t know if I would use it.
That’s my question, too, indy. Would we use it? And if so, would we use it with wisdom? Ah, there’s the key.
I know of one choice in my life, many years ago, that seems to have set everything in motion from that point on. It’s the one thing I’d use the reset button for. But then I wonder if it would really make a difference. Maybe I’ve put far too much importance on it. I suppose it doesn’t matter now.
I do remember the Garth Brooks song. In fact, it’s probably here in the boxed set I bought when I had a thing for country music.
Ah, there are some little decisions I would like to have back – staying up too late last night. And some big decisions I truly would like to have back – briefly moving to Pennsylvania in 2001.
But all in all, we are supposed to learn from our mistakes. If that is true, then I should be the smartest man in the world by now.
For too many, the need for the reset button comes after the words “Here, hold my beer and watch this!”
Never done that, ever.
And I am sticking to my story no matter what photographic evidence you might have!
Sometimes, I think I would like to have that reset button. To correct what I consider to be mistakes as I look back on those decisions, some deliberate, and some just implicit. However, In the end, given the chance to do so, I think I would not take advantage of it. Each decision we make sends us down a different path. I am not entirely happy, but am fairly satisfied with where I ended up. If I changed something back then, where would I be now? I’ll stick with what I have, thanks
I happen to believe that there is no end to time. Therefore, I/we will play out many different roles and lives.
No need to RESET!
BE HERE NOW!
If you don’t mind me asking SEK – Does that mean you believe in reincarnation?
I’ve been interested in that topic for the last few years. Sometimes I can see that being possible but I’m just not sure.
For that matter, nobody has all the ‘real’ answers to life – do they?
For all the preaching from the Bible Thumpers, have they ever proved beyond any doubt they are the only ones with the one true God?
I’m not sekan, but I believe in reincarnation. I once had a discussion with a priest about the subject.
How did that discussion go? Or do I dare ask?
It was interesting. LOL I insisted that there’s nothing in the Bible that denies reincarnation directly or otherwise. He had a difficult time arguing that it did. It really didn’t matter to me whether he agreed or not.
He was the son of a friend of my mother. Oh, and he’s gay. I wish I could remember what order he was/is in. Escapes my mind.
I became interested in reincarnation over 30 years ago and even more so when I found a book that belonged to my grandfather-in-law that had several explanations. There are more than one “type” or belief and differ from one region or religion to another. Wish I could remember the title of that book or the name of the author.
Of course there are mistakes and things if I were to do over I would not do the same.
But then my mistakes are a part of me, who I am and what I am.
Lessons I have learned and scares I carry on my body and some in my mind.
One would be watching where the road was going instead of how beautiful the scenery what while riding down a country road in Missouri. Lucked out and the cliff was not a sheer drop and there was a level spot half way down to bank over and not continue to the bottom. Want to know how hard it is to get a motor cycle back up a cliff?
Quitting the Sedgwick county Sheriffs department to live a dream of working for a small department.
If I had stay I could have already retired or at least been still in a job I loved.
Six grade and outing a good friend’s interest in a girl in front of the entire class.
LOL here lately it has been doing the needed repairs and landscaping now instead of when there was two healthy sons still here to help!
” insisted that there’s nothing in the Bible that denies reincarnation directly or otherwise”
The only statement I can think of is this:
“It is appointed for man to die once, and then the judgement
Hebrews 9: 27
Thanks for finding that, itoldyouso. Not that it changes my mind. 🙂