If only

I think we talked about this list before, written by a palliative care nurse named Bronnie Ware. It's a list of the top 5 regrets of the dying, and I would imagine there are dozens and dozens of things that people just about to shuffle off to Buffalo are sorry about or wish they had done differently.

But among the list (I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me, I wish I hadn’t worked so hard, I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings, I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends, and I wish that I had let myself be happier) I find myself torn between the last two as being most important.

Guess whose face is on the
$10,000 bill?

I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends says a lot to those of us who have been out of school since the schools actually cared if you spelled things correctly, or knew who Salmon P. Chase was. I have to admit, this social media thing might just catch on yet, finally giving us the chance to tweet some of the people we always wanted to tweet. Now listen, I know for sure that there are lots of people who don't care to see how old classmates are doing or whatever happened to that young couple who rented the apartment down the hall when they were just starting out or what happened to the guy who got that promotion they wanted so much, which is why they left the firm and found a new job elsewhere.

If I'm dispensing free advice to the young, as I am wont to do in my dotage, it would be to repeat the old adage about making new friends and keeping the old - one is silver and the other, gold. Staying in touch with the people you really like will be a benefit to you when you're up there in age, and being able to look back with someone who had always been there with you is so much more rewarding than discussing it with the kid who just topped off your crankcase at JiffyLube.

Plus, the practical part of it is, at least in an area like this Baltimore metro, is that if you know somebody, they must know someone who knows someone who can get you out of jury duty. Old friends. Worth it.

I wish that I had let myself be happier. I want to assure all of you who put happiness aside to concentrate on earning more money, having the best lawn on the cul-de-sac, or figuring out why in hell people say "cul-de-sac" when it's a court...all that doesn't matter. You sit and worry about that funny noise the Kelvinator keeps making, or whether your in-laws are going to show up and hang around for a month, or that funny noise that your spouse keeps making, and worry gets you nowhere. The Kelvinator will break down someday and you'll be told by a guy with Norge pants that it needs a whole new pfisteris. Your inlaws will show up, lay claim to your room, monopolize the television and screw up the remote, and you can't do anything about it but get them an afghan so they can snuggle while watching Matlock.  And that funny noise from the spouse is them clearing their throat, reminding you to knock off the worrying.

Besides, one of your old friends probably has an appliance repair business! Call him and have that icebox fixed for cheap.