No Backspace After Enter

Yesterday was a pretty busy day for me, though I'm sure that's no excuse for not managing to blog. I guess the reason I didn't blog yesterday was because I was caught up in doing other things. I did laundry and dishes, I finished up some homework, I ran a few errands, I tackled a small communications challenge, and then was tackled by a larger one. All day, my mind was on the things I was doing or the things I still needed to do, forgetting that blogging was on the list of things I needed to do.

So, I didn't blog yesterday. Maybe I'll blog twice today to make up for it. The trouble is that the few blogworthy thoughts that are going through my mind right now are things I don't want to talk about in such a public space, even though the few people I most don't want to read what I almost feel like saying don't read my blog. I'd prefer not to take that risk and say something I might regret. Is that thought, in itself, blogworthy enough? Sure, let's run with it.

In the third season of Avatar, the Last Airbender, a character named Sokka goes to a blade master to gain some sword-fighting skills. The sword master, Master Piandao, had a few interesting training techniques, including asking Sokka to write his name. Just as Sokka's brush was about to touch the paper, Master Piandao told him to "Remember, you cannot take back a stoke of the brush or a stroke of the sword."

It was wise for Master Piandao to urge caution, for one's actions are irreversible. Once something is done, it cannot be "undone." You might be able to fix the problems rash actions cause, but you can't change the fact that those problems existed. Apologies can heal friendships, but they can't change the past. I've done things that I regret - I'm sure we all have - but regret doesn't fix anything. One thing we can do about our past mistakes is learn from them so you don't repeat them. We can't go back and change the past, but changing the way we act now can help us avoid feeling regret in the future.

That's why I try to be careful about what I say when I'm blogging. Once I say something, here or anywhere, I can't unsay it. Once I publish something on my blog, it's there for all the world to see. I might be able to delete a blog post, but there'll still be a record somewhere, and by the time I delete the post, I'm sure at least some people will have seen it, and by then, it'll be too late to take my words back. You cannot take back a stroke of the keys or the stroke of the tongue. Bear that in mind when your emotions are up. I'm sure we'd all hate to say or do anything that we'd later regret.