Changing the Past

I graduated from high school in 1971. In my entry yesterday, I mentioned that I posted a message in a public forum dedicated to my graduating class. In my message, I addressed the question of whether I would do anything differently if I could go back to my high school days knowing what I do now. This is the message I posted:

I'm delighted that you would change little or nothing if you had high school to do all over again, knowing what you do now. However, my answer is profoundly different. If I knew back then what I do now, I think, or would like to think, that I would do virtually EVERYTHING differently. For I was a painfully shy and geeky young man in high school who largely stayed to himself and graduated in the class of '71 not with a bang or even a whimper but so nondescriptly that I doubt that anyone even noticed. I regret that. For I believe that there was so much more I could have experienced and given of myself during my time at LAHS if only I'd had the confidence and self-discipline to do
it.

There's a great episode of the series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in which Capt. Picard is propelled back in time with his knowledge and character of the future, and he does many things differently and ends up far worse off than he was before. He concludes from this that life is a "tapestry" composed of innumerable interdependent threads and
that to remove any of these threads is to risk having the whole tapestry come disastrously apart. However, if I had the opportunity to do what Capt. Picard did, I would enthusiastically take the chance of changing almost everything and seeing what happened.

But since such opportunities are the stuff of fantastic fiction rather than reality, I will simply say that, despite my misgivings about the past, I am truly grateful that I was privileged enough to attend LAHS
and meet so many nice people and enjoy a good many wonderful times.

Blessings to one and all, now and forever.