Be practical. Don't show what you feel. Regulate your emotions, let the other person show their hand first. Look before you leap. This is advice they give us. It's supposed to be good. Helps you from falling flat on your face, and becoming a fool in the eyes of the world.

But why does it make me feel like this? All bottled up, ready to explode, restless, dissatisfied? How do these so-called Buddhas plan to negate that? I can't work, I can't have fun. It's like being stuck in limbo with that one question looming over your head and stuck in your heart. What if? What if I'd been more encouraging? What if I'd said yes? What if I'd paid more attention to him instead of being the practical, focused, balanced idiot that I am? Why did I have to leave so soon? Even more, why did I expect he would be waiting? What if... what if?

Advice should be more varied to suit the individual. In such a random, chaotic, shifting world, why develop the sense if the sensibilities remain underdeveloped? And while stopping to smell the roses is all very well, why not make it into a regular frolic? It may be a mistake, but, then again, it may not. While the gall of defeat may be overwhelming, at the very least you won't have to deal with your placid little world in the alternate version being tinctured with the pricks of regret.

So unfurl your scarves, throw up your hats, let loose your fancy, and see how your situation changes! Forget the pessimists, the cynics and the watchers. Blunder, botch and bungle, and come up laughing all the while.

And as for the contempt of the world? Fuck the world!