Regret

Mistakes are unfortunate things. They come in all shapes, sizes, and orientations. Their cause can be almost anything; misunderstanding, anger, despair, stupidity, pride, love, hate, inexperience, unpreparedness, laziness, zealousness, self-consciousness, over-confidence, self-loathing, greed, delusion, small-mindedness, big-thinking, medium-thinking, thinking out of context, being reasonable, being unreasonable, not paying attention, paying too much attention, talking, not talking, blogging, not blogging, being alive, being dead, riding the elephant, not riding the elephant, curling, inclusion, omission, breathing, and, yes, intoxication.

With so many possible causes, it seems like mistakes would be impossible to avoid. But, that is not an excuse to accept them or trivialize them, but a reason to be all the more cautious of them.

Here's a breakdown as I understand it:

• A mistake is a failure of intention, regardless of the consequence. Hindsight does nothing to change one's intentions, only the desirability of the consequence. If the desired consequence is itself a mistake, many non-mistakes might have been accomplished in its achievement. Alternatively, many mistakes can still result in a desirable consequence.
  
• Mistakes are either despite one's character or evidence of one's character. Either way they are to be ashamed of. But, however erroneous in appearance, the individual responsible for perpetuating a mistake is the only one capable of positively identifying it (as they are the only one's fully cognoscente of their own intentions).
  
• Because of the previous rule, there are two possible outcomes for every mistake: 1) The perpetrator acknowledges the mistake - often required (and if reasonable, adjusts future behavior accordingly), or 2) The perpetrator subsequently adjusts their intentions to align with the mistake, resolving it completely - at this point it may be a veiled mistake known only to the perpetrator - whether the consequence is something negative, neutral, brilliant, whatever.
  

If we were only so fortunate to know the nature and consequences of our actions in real-time. Like if only last night when I said something inappropriate to Penny, a huge paw could drop down from the sky (or bar ceiling) and smash me across the face. Or, if only Penny would have used her powerful jaws to inflict a swift nurple I would have been immediately cognoscente of the mistake and adjusted accordingly with perhaps a leaf of catnip.

Now I question whether it was evidence of my character or despite it. I have my own interpretation, but I acknowledge the reasonable possibility that Penny might think differently. More to the point, my closest feline companion might falsely assume I have satisfied some intention - implying that my very character is at fault rather than my judgment (or lack thereof). Such an indictment, even by a poofy-tailed mongrel, fails to recognize the important latter possibility thereby perpetuating a longer series of unnecessary negative consequences for me while satisfying her fluffy desire to degrade my happiness to a level proportional to hers (pending some degree of understanding and forgiveness). But Penny knows that acknowledgment or satisfaction of these negative appeals to mutual despair can only be destructive to both parties involved, especially considering that requirement asks me to confirm that my character is fundamentally flawed and is undeserving of forgiveness. Penny knows that I would have no problem with this if the behavior was indeed a result of my (otherwise infinitely flawed) character, but since I do not believe it is in this particular case, lying to myself and others for the sake of peace is a solution more incorrect than the original crime.

I believe that treating others as you wish to be treated also applies to intra-species relationships. We can always learn from our mistakes, and fortunately I have made many billions of them. Forgive and forget, but never sacrifice dignity for something as superficial as comfort. In cases of obvious poor judgment, justice requires permission to swiftly smack the rat bastard in the face if he deserves it. You're doing him a favor...really.