My debut album as Big Stitch is a six-track EP titled “Regretfulnot.” The album is tightly thematic. It explores my experience of (re)discovering, living in, falling in love with, and leaving Nova Scotia, Canada. That experience led to a peculiar emotional state of joyful disappointment. (Or disappointing joy?) Making the album was an existential reflection centered on the idea of regret. It’s about processing regret when I don’t believe in regret (or at least its validity). In other words, the album simultaneously represents regret and the absence of regret—the paradox of both being equally true.

My spiritual center is Buddhism. My philosophical center is American Pragmatism. (Yes, I was an academic.) Neither Buddhism nor pragmatism has much use for regret (other than for teaching). In Buddhism, regret represents too much attention given to the past. In pragmatism, regret represents forgetting that there are no mistakes if decisions are made to improve oneself. (Paraphrasing heavily here.) Buddhism and American Pragmatism view unproductive regret (what Buddhism calls kukkucca) as an obstacle to growth. Both advocate moving beyond regret to focus on practical consequences and personal development through experience.

Since becoming a Buddhist-pragmatist 25 years ago, I haven’t had an experience that created so much reflection on regret—whether I “regretted” doing something—as with moving to and away from Halifax. Yeah, had you asked me a couple of years ago whether I’d regretted doing anything, I would have said no. A couple months ago, I’d say “Ummm, welllll…” Right now? I’d start talking about Buddhism and American Pragmatism.