A UNIVERSAL LAMENT

Joe Paterno, the former football coach at Penn State University has been quoted as saying, "I wish I had done more" regarding his failure to follow-up on the reports that his former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, had raped a ten year-old boy in the University football team's shower room. From reports that have been released thus far, when Paterno was informed of Sandusky's actions by a graduate student who observed the incident, Paterno reported the incident to his boss, the University's Director of Athletics, but did nothing to alert the police about the rape or to locate the young victim to insure he received treatment and counseling for the horrifying trauma the young boy experienced. Only now, after the whole sordid affair has hit the fan, does Joe recognize that he should have done more. Unfortunately, now is too late and Joe will spend the rest of his days lamenting about what he might have done differently - SHOULD have done differently.

We all lament our mistakes; at least we should. We reflect on our past and wish we had done this or that differently, and hopefully feel remorse over the bad choices we've made. The bigger our mistakes the more we should lament them, but it's useful to remember that none of our lamenting can change the past. The past is now set in stone. The real value of lamenting is its potential to affect change in the person we are today, so that tomorrow we become a better person.