Guilt

Generally speaking, I don't do guilt. I have regrets, of course. There are probably millions of little decisions spread across my life that I wouldn't do again, given the same or similar circumstance. There are very few things that I would alter though, at this point looking back. My life has turned out pretty well, and I wouldn't want to change the way things have turned out for me.

To quote William Adama from Battlestar Galactica, "you live with it." I sincerely believe that the golden path is to carry them with you enough to learn without letting them overpower you, and without letting them pull you backwards or get you stuck.

Star Trek V was a pretty bad movie. It did, however, have some great bits. I particularly enjoyed Captain Kirk's response when Sybok offers to remove his pain. Our pain molds us as humans. The key is to use the pain as a lever, not to avoid it, disavow it or wallow in it.

Having said that, I've had it pretty easy. My life hasn't been 'charmed,' but I haven't really suffered either.

There are a few points of gnawing guilt that I will admit: there's always more I could be doing to conserve the environment, and the division of resources in our world is inherently unfair. In other words, I have more than I deserve, and I cause more harm than I need to. There are plenty of justifications I could offer, but none would really alter those two fundamental points.