Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire If you could back up and do it over again...

What is done is done. I would not trade my family for anything in this world.

I just answered a theoretical question

How do we know we're not already reliving the lives we led? How do we know we're not on the 3rd, 4th or 1000th iteration trying to get it right?

We just don't get to know what we knew then, or will know later, or however that works...

Well, the Bible says we live once and then are judged. (Or something like that.) So we have an answer to that hypothetical.



There are several things I might have done different but some of them would have cancelled each other out.

I should have submitted my resume to the Government Accounting Standards Board when they requested it, instead of going into self-employment.

But I should have found a way to stay downstate during Carter's recession because I never have found a way to get back down there since then. But, of course, then there never would have been the wrong choice to make regarding GASB.

This is a fine and genuinely introspective man being more openly honest than most would dare. My time with him, although too short, has been of great value. Even though understanding much of why he deems himself a "failure" as a father, I cannot agree with that assessment for, in my aging eyes, there is too much evidence to the contrary. As some know from time well spent, he has proved his excellent mettle in may other ways. A very congruent person, as evidenced by his post.

Also - John - very good thread.

I believe that story is from Taoism but I might be mistaken.


There is another story of a fellow who asked a magician to let him relive his life, to "know then what he knew now". So the magician granted his wish and sent him back to when he was a young man just starting out in life.

The man changed many things in his life - different job, married a different woman and lived in a different house in a different country - but he was just as miserable as he was in his previous life. He only changed the external things but neglected to change anything internally so he was the same person as before and made the same mistakes as before. He had the same attitudes and treated himself and others just as badly as he had before.



The other thing to take away from "if I only knew then what I know now" is that we know now what we know now and can carry that knowledge into the future. As they say on the motivational posters, it's never too late to be the person you always wanted to be.




(I'd still like to leverage silver futures at around 11 and sell a couple months later somewhere in the 40's. ).

+1

Yes sir ... they turned out ok , but wish I had been more patient

I'd married that girl that tripped my trigger like no other, before or since.

You've put some thought into this.

Can't change the past, learn from it.
Live in the present, enjoy it.
Plan for the future, can't avoid it.

I would find the stupid teenager that thought it was really cool to smoke cigarettes and get falling down drunk whenever possible , would kick his azz into next week.

Other than that, probably wouldn't change too much, has been one hell of a ride and still on the horse.

I'd try to get in a few more visits with my Grandpa and my Great Uncle. They probably had the answers to the questions I am facing at this point in my life.

I've done plenty of stupid things, and learned from a few of them.


That said, I guess it's my personality but I tend to look forward not back. Hence I really can't think of anything I would have changed.

I would not change a thing.
Yes, I made mistakes along the way, but, --- what a hell of a ride!!

I'd hang out more with that Gates geek.

Well, you could but....

This is interesting, because one of my fears/concerns is that they're going to send me back and make me do it again. Wasn't much fun this time, don't really want to again.

I would do just about everything different if I had the chance to live my adult life over again. It's a darn shame that I lived as long as I did before I learned what I have. I'd realize early on that the best stuff in life isn't 'stuff'. I'd realize early on that marriage is like digging for rubies in a pile of rubble, only to discover that the rubble itself was the real treasure all along. I'd realize early on that the least rewarding time of my life was when I lived for myself. And more than anything else, I'd realize that loving God...and demonstrating my love for God by loving others...would be and should be the filter through which I thought about, and acted upon, everything in my life. And I would put forth tremendous effort to make sure that my loved ones knew that they were loved unconditionally by me. I'd be more nurturing, and I'd be more emotionally attuned with them. A lot. And I'd spend a lot less time and money on things that did not matter, and I'd spend a lot more time and money on things that did matter.

That said, I know of no other charity that is as outstanding in every aspect of its mission than St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

I still haven't figured how to shoot a deer and have it run to my truck before it falls over dead. Otherwise it's be a good and occasionally wild ride I wouldn't change.

Hang ten.....if you got 'em.

I'd have gone straight to college instead of almost blowing my GI bill. I'd be an engineer now instead of a tech with a two year degree.

At least I got a bit of education, w/o the indoctrination, that helps me be useful and earn my keep.

I wouldn't have started to smoke, paying the price now