(Untitled)

[welladjustedrob]

In my life, as in yours, there have been bad decisions and good ones. Good experiences and bad ones. Inevitably these decisions and experiences are causally related, some directly and some more indirectly. They also do not exist separately, with good and bad strands running in parallel. There is only one long string of events. Sometimes it can

Comments

[ghosttoboggan]

Very thoughtful entry, Rob. Would you be open to my posting some responses/ideas of mine on "all this?" I get the strong sense that I'm in a very similar area - internally - to what you're describing.

[welladjustedrob]

Please!

[ghosttoboggan]

Just to let you know - it may be a few days before I post my response. I see so much potential for dialogue here, so I want to give myself enough time to articulate my ideas.

response part 1

[ghosttoboggan]

[ Not sure if this came out longer or shorter than I initially expected, but I did have to split it into two parts. I can't vouch for any exceptionally well written-ness, or for a complete absence of ornate, overcooked writing, but I am confident that the following has the essence of how I wanted to respond to your original post

response part 2

[ghosttoboggan]

And then there's pitfall of interpreting our past in ways that can actually hurt us in the long run: distorted thinking, and the influence (and further interpretation of) overwhelming feelings or anxiety, to name a few. These can all impose further limits on our ability to see the larger context. When anticipating future decisions, we can scrutinize our possible choices, strive to be conscientious, proceed with with full commitment, and still end up disappointed. If our disappointment follows after we've made an important choice (or what seemed like an important choice), we may interpret the disappointment in several ways. When left in the wake of an upsetting experience, we're likewise compelled to interpretation. Again, there are many ways of interpreting our past. Because no one escapes disappointment and pain in life, I have to suspect that some "ways of interpretation" just lend themselves to "being able to pick ourselves up and get on with life." It's clear to me that some people have learned how to interpret in that way better