Shadows, and Regrets
Regret stems from uncertainty and wishful thinking. It is often pushed alongside a bad situation that had better alternatives, but there, it does not belong.
The “could have been” is our regret. It’s the alternative outcome; the natural course; the happy, certain ending. That finality is easy to see, to imagine, and the steps between us and what we want seem sure and guaranteed.
Regret is how we react to uncertainty, when the world is shaken up. When we take the unnatural choice, when we try something different, regret is our wishing for the easy way out.
It’s precisely when the future seems most uncertain, when things seem unpredictable and out of control, that we look back and pick a moment, seemingly at random: it becomes our regretted decision. “If only,” we think, “it would have turned out differently.”