harmony wrote:Yet how can I learn from the past, if my choices in the past were made based on a different understanding than what I now have?
I'd say that's essential to the learning process. You now have a new understanding, created by experiencing the past one, and learning from it. (Most others won't understand this, because you have experienced it.)
harmony wrote:I mean, many of my choices were based on knowing that Joseph was an honest, upstanding, honorable man... and now I know that's a fairy tale. I used to think prophets were in tune with God, on a direct line so to speak. But now, I know that's not so. So many things have changed, because what I truly believed turned out to be just smoke and mirrors... men trying hard to maintain a facade that crumbles before the harsh glare of reality. So my reality was essentially built on sand. So I cling to my own values, my own relationship with God, and my love of my family.
So that leaves me with a host of choices that now present themselves (like a man with a voice like melted butta') that previously I'd have dealt with swiftly with no thought of any other way. But now...
Damn.
Some things will always remain "too late to do", others will not.
Many of our self-constructed "realities" are built on sand, not just religious ones. I recently found out something about a relative that was 180 different to the way everyone in the family perceived him/her for 50-plus years. That wasn't his fault, because he never encouraged the false perception, nor discouraged it.
Life is filled with illusions, and not just religious ones. I suppose that's why I see little point in being bitter about the losses, or the illusions, or wishing it was all different. The problem is that it takes a long time to learn, and priorities change.
Old age is when you resent the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated because there are fewer articles to read. - George Burns