Sure, you remembered the brioche for the stuffing, the heavy cream for the sweet potatoes, the garlic stuffed olives, and the 99 other items that were on your list for the big holiday dinner. But the cranberry snafu means these will not be on the Thanksgiving table. And you will hear about it.

How long should you hang your head?

Or you’re a bookkeeper who forgot to add in the December receivables. Rookie mistake, and it caused the boss to look a bit stupid when he passed on your year end report to the higher-ups.

Or you’re a bartender who over-served a customer who went out and caused a wreck.

How long should we feel the the guilt, blame, and even trauma of an oversight, bad decision, or honest mistake?

In Sunday’s gospel, the disciples suffered their own trauma, of seeing Jesus and Elijah and Moses upon the holy mount. They were terrified - traumatized - and told not to speak of it.

How long should they allow to get over it?

Not long.

Life is too short to fret over missed opportunities, rookie mistakes, or even really bad lapses in judgment. We can’t take the past back. Or hit rewind.

We should, instead, realize life’s brevity and put things in perspective. Jesus is about to go down to Jerusalem and die, the disciples only have so much more time to be with him. Their mistakes in recognizing him pale in comparison to the glory to be revealed. We only have a short amount of time to marshal our resources to do good, let’s not use them to make ourselves feel bad.

The world is better because you’re in it. Now dust yourself off, forget the cranberries, and bring your best self to the game. (HT Seth Godin)