Have you ever had thoughts like these? What if I had gone to college? Or moved to a different city? If only I had followed up on that one business opportunity, or joined that one group. What might my life have been like then? Would I have been happier? Wealthier? Healthier? I think all of us have a tendency to look back and wonder what might have been, if only I had done _________ (fill in the blank).
However, I like to think I have been fairly successful in looking to the future instead of the past. When it comes time to make a decision, any decision, I tell myself to make the best choice (or what I think is the best choice) at that moment in my life, and move on. Do not look back. This reasoning has kept me fairly sane throughout my life. (Please don't ask my sisters if I am reasonably sane; they could give you a different answer.)
Anyway, I think that this kind of logic is what makes it hard for me to read a book like
| Destiny
of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard. Because this book is about a local man—Garfield's home was, and still is, in Mentor—I had to read it. is a very well-written and compelling book about the assassination of President James A. Garfield. It intertwines the life and death of Garfield with inventions by Alexander Graham Bell and discoveries by the French scientist Joseph Lister. Although the book was very good, I had a hard time reading it because it concentrated a lot on What If... and If Only, making me a bit depressed about what might have been. But if you like history and/ or biography, you will want to read this book. It gives us a picture of a man who would have made a great difference in this country, if only he had lived to serve out his term, or terms, as President. |
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