There is an old African proverb that goes like this:
‘We live life forward. We understand it backward.’
This appeals to our Inner Rhino.
Another Point of View
Your Inner Rhino
There is an old African proverb that goes like this:
‘We live life forward. We understand it backward.’
This appeals to our Inner Rhino.
Your Inner Rhino 
Interesting little fact: The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard reached the same conclusion: (from Wikiquote): Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds.
It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
Journals IV A 164 (1843)
See Phenomenology: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, by Dermot Moran (2002)
Variants:
We live forward, but we understand backward.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
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Admittedly, my Danish is not what it was, whatever it was back before that. I like the living-it-forward caveat since we all have to go at it that way. Is Blundering a decision or a style. Who is in a position to know?
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I don’t want to be contrary, but what if we don’t understand life at all – neither backwards nor forwards nor sideways nor upside down???
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Your situation sounds entirely reasonable to me. Even looking backward, one sees moments where a better choice might have made a difference, but there’s no guarantee about that, and what is for sure is, you’ll never know either way. I think looking back is really an exercis e in humor, seeing how much we suffered over moments in our lives, where the suffering usually came to nothing. Also, I like your recipe; it smacks of a light-handed perspective, and that’s a help in these tmes. For sure.
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