(T)here are the times when one feels the frustration of realizing the existence of a flaw of theirs. and who can be blamed? what can be done? There is usually no quick fix right? People change but all too slowly. Of course we regret some things in the past, but that regret will only grow as the past grows unless something is done. At the end of a sport's season, one can regret the defeats but that is all they can do. The sequel to the amazing film will not be released until next year. The next season will not begin for 9 more months. But we cannot ignore the losses and regrets in our lives because there is no sequel to our movie and there is no next season.
Aristotle said that everything people set out to do is considered by them to be 'good'. More specifically he said:
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim. But a certain difference is found among ends; some are activities, others are products apart from the activities that produce them. Where there are ends apart from the actions, it is the nature of the products to be better than the activities.Aristotle doesn't say anything about accidents. Curious.
Ultimately, when we regret something where there was motivation for it, we regret the motivation more than the action itself. The question becomes what really are our motives. For instance, I would like to think that I am selfless all the time, but it just isn't true. As I am with the ball near the goal, I consider passing to someone with a better shot, but sometimes the thought of the glory of making the goal overtakes me and I shoot it anyway. A harmless act of selfishness really, but it still helps me make the point: there is the person we would like to think we are, and there is the person we really are. I don't wake up each morning thinking about the mistakes I might make that day. Just before I swing the tennis racket, I picture myself hitting the ball perfectly, though it rarely works out that way.
We all hope that our lives will only get better. We don't think about the people who will die, or the mistakes we will make, or the regrets we will have. But maybe life will always be as good as it is. Maybe our expectations will go down with time and create the illusion that everything is getting better. Or maybe all we can do is practice to be more like the person we already think we are. That, plus a little luck, and life should work out fine.
I enjoy hookah on a rare occasion. Last night some close friends asked me if I would come along with them for "nargile". I recalled my last time smoking the hookah. It was New Years Eve, and I was in a hookah bar in the Cordon part of İzmir, Turkey. I remember the day fondly. So I went along with my friends last night to a place that they frequent. When we got there it was crowded, but my friends being 'regulars', so to speak, had no trouble getting us a private room in the upstairs section which had been closed. There we chilled out for a couple of hours, talking all the while about many things. I puffed charily on the lemon-tea-flavored tobacco until it saturated the senses at which point I focused less on the surroundings and more on the conversation which until then I had not noticed was in a different language. It must have switched slowly from the familiar English to the murky Turkish, but my friends' accents remaining unchanged had made the transition seamless. The night carried on in a continuously enjoyable manner. So I took a picture.
