“Why not? I can see where your heart is, and there’s no point in keeping you here, counting
the days until you can get over there. So go ahead.”
Jay stuck his hand out, and I shook it. “I’ve enjoyed this,” he smiled. “Cub reporter to
managing editor. It’s been quite a ride for you.
“Yeah.”
“We’ve had a good ride, too. Thanks for taking us along.”
“No, thanks for taking me along.” I choked up. “Thanks for giving me a chance. I really
needed that job when you gave it to me. I’ll never forget that. I don’t know how I can ever
repay something like that.”
“I do,” Jay said.
“How?”
“Pass it on.”
That was it. How could I leave this guy? How could I abandon the paper? Jay saw the look
on my face. “Don’t even think about it,” he said. “Pack your stuff and get out of here.”
Then he was gone. Just like that. Out of my office, and out the door to the street. But as he
left, he said over his shoulder, “Don’t look back, friend. Never look back.”
That was the last time I saw him.
He gave you good advice.
Really? We should never look back, ever? There’s nothing to gain from looking back?
He meant, “No second guesses.” Move forward with no second-guessing, no guirt trips, no
hesitation. Your life is out in front of you, not behind you. What you’ve done is what you’ve
done. You can’t change that. But you can move forward.
Yes, but isn’t it okay to have regrets?
As long as you don’t confuse regret with guilt. They are not the same. Regret is your
announcement that you did not demonstrate your highest idea about who you are. Guilt is
your decision that you are not worthy of doing so ever again.
Your society and your religions teach you of a guilt which requires you to be punished without
hope of rehabilitation. Yet I tell you this: the purpose of life is to recreate yourself anew in
each moment, in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who
You Are.
In this, I have joined you as cocreator, seeing where you are going, seeing the path you have
set for yourself, and giving you the tools to experience exactly what you needed to