G*Nice: Lessons on the journey of life

We so often hear people saying that they would have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight. For those who are not familiar with that phrase, imagine that you are driving in your car looking in your rear-view mirror with the ability to see all the past behind you, with the possibility to draw on these things from the past and bring your knowledge of them into the future.

The phrase is often used when we are expressing regret at our actions.

I can honestly say that I have made my peace with most of my actions and reactions. Even the ones that were terribly painful, causing upset to others, have somehow transpired to transport all concerned to a different space where life is strangely new and invigorating. Life is, after all, a journey and no journey is undertaken on a completely straight road with no bumps. Hmmmm... Come to think of it, the journey to Abu Dhabi is pretty much taken on a perfect, long straight road but you get the idea!

Thinking on it, I guess there are a few things that I wish I could take back from the past. I certainly wouldn’t have started the dead-leg game with my neighbour in my mum’s front room, which resulted in a broken window. Being brutally honest, there are probably a few haircuts I wouldn’t have inflicted on myself and, in turn, some of the fights that no doubt were caused by the attention attracted by said haircuts could have been avoided. Thankfully I now sport a clean-shaven head so that is one dilemma  I will never have to face again. The one really scary thing when pondering the power of hindsight is the realisation that I am not smart enough to capitalise on it if it were a reality.

I mean, if the light bulb had never been invented and I had the knowledge of it by travelling back in time, I would have no idea how to explain it to anybody now. Forget the iPhone and the internet, even how a record works!

Think on it – what product could you be 100 per cent sure that you could have developed if you could bring knowledge of it from the past into the future where it didn’t yet exist? My list is unimpressive. I could probably do chairs and tables, and all sorts of containers but beyond that it would be a stretch. The biggest innovation I could benefit from by time travelling is the Post-It.

Time travel and hindsight would also allow me to write all the songs that have been personal favourites or million-sellers. But much like the dead-leg game leading to broken windows, all actions have reactions and consequences. If I were to grab the credit for, say, For Once in My Life by Stevie Wonder, then his career may well have never of taken off like it did, and we all would have been denied the genius of Songs in the Key of Life and all those it inspired.

So I would be very reluctant to use my imaginary special power to affect the course of time when it comes to music as the domino-effect could in turn deny all of us so much pleasure. But then again, if I could have stopped  Justin Beiber by my actions, maybe it all would have been worth it!

Under-Achievably Yours
G*Nice

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G* Nice is a Dubai-based columnist who writes an exclusive column for Friday.