You remember "If Cats Disappeared from the World," right?
If not, let’s refresh your memory. A 30-year-old postman is diagnosed with brain cancer. The Devil, of all people (forces, spirits, things?), comes to him on a Monday and tells him he has one day to live, unless he allows the Devil to remove one thing from the world. For each day he lets something disappear, he can live another 24-hours.
The book takes course over the span of a week. At first, I thought removing something from the world would be no biggie. But turns out, the postman doesn’t get to decide what stays and what goes; the Devil does.
Here’s what the Devil chose to disappear on each day:
Tuesday: Phones
Wednesday: Movies
Thursday: Clocks
Friday: Cats
As revealed on Friday, the postman can’t allow Cats to disappear. After the passing of the postman’s mother, his cat Cabbage is the only family and source of love he knows. He can’t rid the world of such a light.
But here’s what I found most interesting – the devil isn’t random. In no way, shape or form. The devil looks how your mind imagines him. The devil acts as the person you could have been. As the side of yourself you’ve never shown to the world. Made up of all those little regrets in your life.
This was supposed to be a blog about how I hope to minimize regret in my life. But the more I read, the more I hope to have hundreds of regrets. Thousands. Millions. I don’t care. Pile them on because regret is a byproduct of choice. Thus, regret is a byproduct of life. The more you live, the more choices you make and ultimately, the more regrets you have.
To regret is to live. To do that something over another something. To do something rather than nothing.
I’ve never thought of regret in this way. Until now.
“So, I guess I’m going to die with all those failures and regrets: all those unfulfilled dreams, all the people I’ve never met, all the things I’ve never tasted and all the places I’ve never been. I’m taking all that with me to my grave, and I’m okay with that. In the end, I’m satisfied with who I am and the life I’ve lived. I’m just happy to have been here at all.”
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