Remorse Code

It is expected that, when we do bad things, we will feel remorse.  How many times have we heard someone say, in courtroom dramas, "the killer had no remorse"?  I am doing Weight Watchers again and trying hard to lose weight.  Nevertheless, at a recent Valentine's Day dinner, I indulged on a huge steak and decadent desserts.  Mistake!  I experienced "Eater's Remorse".  Shortly after enjoying that wonderful meal, I was overheard to say "I wish I hadn't eaten all that".  I regretted my blatant disregard for the tenets of Weight Watchers and my lapse into fat person behavior. Regret and remorse go hand in hand; often hand-to-mouth.
To help me through the wilderness of dieting I like to seek diversions such as blogging and listening to music, to take my mind off my stomach.

Aside from Weird Al Yankovic's "My Bologna", I don't know of any songs which describe the regret of over-eating. However, in the great pantheon of Country & Western music, there are a gazillion songs about regret.  Instead of saying "I wish I hadn't eaten all that", the songs tell stories of "I wish I hadn't _________". You can fill-in-the-blank.  "I wish I hadn't told her she was old/fat/ugly and that her feet smelled".  "I wish I had told her I loved her", and maybe she would still be around.  Songwriters have set their regrets to music in countless songs.  Here are just a few:

In “Revelry” by the Kings of Leon, the singer is regretful of a relationship ending because of his love of partying. “Story of My Life” by Social Distortion tells of a love interest the singer had as a teenager that he did not act upon. Years later, he's looking back regretfully on how things from this youth have changed and how quickly his life and opportunity has passed him by. Bob Seger’s “Beautiful Loser” is about having goals set so low that you never achieve anything, and regretting not trying harder.  “Shattered Dreams” by Johnny Hates Jazz is a lamenting tale of a romance that ends in betrayal. The Box Tops’ classic “Cry Like A Baby” tells the tale of a man who took for granted the love of his faithful girlfriend. It’s a pop song but has the sentiment of so many country & western songs because the main character regrets how terribly he treated his girl, now that she's left him. He cries every time he sees her or even thinks of her. In “Title and Registration” by Death Cab for Cutie, the singer finds old pictures of his girlfriend ("souvenirs from better times") in the glove compartment of his car and regrets why the relationship is needlessly over. Possibly the most famous song of regret is The Beatles’ “Yesterday”, which is incidentally the most covered pop song of all time, with over 3,000 versions according to The Guinness Book Of World Records. Its mass appeal is likely due to the purity of its message that 1) he said something wrong, 2) now she’s gone, and 3) he regrets the mistake. “Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say. I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.” The lovely and sad melody coupled with Paul McCartney’s timeless lyrics resonate with everyone who ever had a broken heart.

No regrets, no worries.