It is amazing how the shape of an event changes when viewed over-the-shoulder.

Sometimes I tell myself that I /should/ have behaved differently than I did. Why did I do that stupid thing? I mean, after all, I know better don't I? No! Tsk, tsk, you foolish boy, that's just lousy, lying hindsight (curse his name), with his perfectly warped vision. The "me" of that moment made the best choices he could with the knowledge and presence of mind he had then -- the knowledge I have now, in the future, is irrelevant. That a better decision /could/ have been made is knowledge I can use to mold my future choices; trying to shape the past only poisons the present.

Other times, however, when I look back, I see past events from a different perspective. I am in that same moment, but instead of placing my current self in my past selves shoes, I am watch from a distance. All of my mistakes look silly, almost whimsical. I don't want to change my actions, I just want to love that goofy human, bumbling about in that uniquely human way. I treasure rare moments of reverie like this, for it is in them that I can look back at my past mistakes, and call them perfect.