All of it bad, nothing good?

“The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War” is about a group of doughboys, slang for US Army soldiers in WWI. It includes a quote from Orson Warren, the father of Bill Warren, who served in Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. 

"Orson Warren, born in 1860, seems to have had as little luck achieving professional success as he did in controlling his oldest child. Orson would admit in an autobiographical sketch he wrote in 1934: “The fact is, I have during my career lingered near the bottom rung. Then, too, my life has been so full of blunders it isn’t pleasant to think of having them paraded.”

The last sentence is highlighted to emphasize what is true for most of us. We list our regrets, not our accomplishments, including the author of this book, when talking about someone else.

More often than not, most readers commenting on my books do the same, talking about their unlived lives. I tell them to look for what they are pleased they did and said, along with what they wish they hadn’t. We need to do both to do more of the former and less of the latter in the future. I tell them that’s what they should do, though I don't always do it myself. 

Orson Warren found his “blunders” being “paraded” to be unpleasant. He graduated from college, became a teacher, married, and had a family. There was good he could have cited as well if he'd only looked for it.

​Don’t do what Orson did, or me, for that matter. Examine your life, but do so looking for good and the bad. You will find both.