Some people struggle for decades with decisions that can no longer be corrected. What tormenting regret can do to the body – and how to learn to live with it.
Lothar Matthäus knew how to express it with the poetry of the football philosopher: “Would be, would be, bicycle chain,” he once said in a discussion about a controversial penalty decision. As creative as the variation of the well-known “Would have” proverb was and as avant-garde as its art of rhyming was, “Would have” and “would have” are equally integral and recurring parts of self-talk that people have with themselves every day. If only I had accepted the job offer back then! If only I had stayed home that evening! If only I had kept my mouth shut, how much better my world would be! And so it is perhaps the enlightened, the wise, the wise, the philosophers who see it like Matthew: forget about it. But now let’s look ahead. What was, has been.