There's something deeply resonant here. I've wrestled with the question of what to do with regret for what feels like my whole life so far. Missed opportunities, stupid choices, wasted time... The wrong way is to fantasize about what life would be like if I'd just [insert alternate history here].
But then, the sum of who I am today must be at least in part a product of this wrestling. Do I seek absolution? I don't know. Transcendence? Again, I'm not sure what that means. What I want is to be fully who I am, growing deeper and taller with each passing year. Attainment of greater virtue for the sake of attaining greater virtue.
To contextualize the deepset thorn of regret as a useful tool in that aspiration is an angle I hadn't quite comprehended before.
I am glad the point came across - when I first read the passages from Proust, I had to reread it. Then I had to write this whole piece about it to explore the perspective. I think we are so determined to "regret" the regret and have mistakes we like to hold onto that we don't use the regret as just another tool to grow, rather than something to repress or "get through."
Always nice to see you wrestling with questions of identity and self, and channeling your ear for figurative language in the process. Like J.E., I always find new angles on perceiving life through your work: thanks as always for the thought provocation 🤝
You may be the biggest fan of my self-indulgent psychology series... as always, we must be connected on a metaphysical level of The Tragic Artiste. Thank you for reading!
There's something deeply resonant here. I've wrestled with the question of what to do with regret for what feels like my whole life so far. Missed opportunities, stupid choices, wasted time... The wrong way is to fantasize about what life would be like if I'd just [insert alternate history here].
But then, the sum of who I am today must be at least in part a product of this wrestling. Do I seek absolution? I don't know. Transcendence? Again, I'm not sure what that means. What I want is to be fully who I am, growing deeper and taller with each passing year. Attainment of greater virtue for the sake of attaining greater virtue.
To contextualize the deepset thorn of regret as a useful tool in that aspiration is an angle I hadn't quite comprehended before.
I am glad the point came across - when I first read the passages from Proust, I had to reread it. Then I had to write this whole piece about it to explore the perspective. I think we are so determined to "regret" the regret and have mistakes we like to hold onto that we don't use the regret as just another tool to grow, rather than something to repress or "get through."
Always nice to see you wrestling with questions of identity and self, and channeling your ear for figurative language in the process. Like J.E., I always find new angles on perceiving life through your work: thanks as always for the thought provocation 🤝
You may be the biggest fan of my self-indulgent psychology series... as always, we must be connected on a metaphysical level of The Tragic Artiste. Thank you for reading!
“They say best men are moulded out of faults,
And for the most, become much more the better,
For being a little bad”