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“Re” is a funny attachment to the front of a word. We use it all the time. An on occasion, it makes perfectly good sense.

Take the method for listening to music or watching video. There is play, and then there is replay. In this case, it all works out. Or… we can install software. But sometimes it goes all sideways and we have to reinstall that software.

Are you tired of your old self? You are who you are, because of you. So. Reinvent yourself.

And if you happen to be Batman, there are movies all about you. Then there are all the Remakes.

You see, in all of these, the word itself stands on its own two feet. Play, Install, Invent, Make.

Then, life throws you a loop… .or a hoop. So you play basketball. And you bound up and down the floor. Then someone shoots, and what do you do? Rebound. However…. if you were the literal type, you would simply bound back down the floor. The other team would recover the ball from the shot, they would score, win the game…. And YOU would be a putz.

But not you. NO. You would break the rules of English and rebound that ball. Leaps and bounds be damned.

But all that running up and down the ball court is hard on your high tops. You have one pair of basketball shoes, and that is it. And now, you have worn them thin. When you buy some more, do you repair?

Do you see how this Re thing gets tricky?

Then there are words which only make sense when coupled with RE.

Like Pel. I don’t know how to Pel. But when I go rock climbing, I am a bad mama-jama when it comes to repelling. In my little coolio helmet.

On the Catholic side of my life. Pent was unknown to me. But when the Priest said Repent, I said, “How many Hail Mary’s will that take Father?”

But. The word that started all of this tonight is Gret. Hence, my regrets. It happens in life. We feel sad, or disappointed over something that has happened or been done. Something we can’t do over. As hard as I try, they still come circling back around me, like vultures.

Yet. Here is the thing. The past can’t be changed. But we CAN learn from it, for sure. We can vow not to make the same mistake again. It makes us strive for better. And if we stop, and look at where we are now, there are probably plenty of positives which resulted from our original regret.

Like right now, I am seriously regretting tonight’s column. I’ll go back to square one tomorrow, and do a rewrite. I always do.

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“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, “It might have been.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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“We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

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“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”
― Shannon L. Alder

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Las Vegas without Wayne Newton is like Disneyland without Mickey Mouse. — Merv Griffin

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