麻豆约拍

Mark Tully asks if it is right to live with regret, or preferable to get over our mistakes. Can we be immobilised by self-pity at one extreme, but willfully insensitive at the other?

The programme features an interview with writer Erwin James, who served 20 years in prison for murder. He accepts that he will never stop regretting his crimes and seeks no forgiveness, rejecting the Christian notion of grace and a God who forgives sin. James does hope for some kind of eventual peace though, and explains how he deals with constant regret for the pain he has caused, by living the best life he can.

Mark Tully, with the help of Lady Macbeth and Edith Piaf, also looks at the opposite response to actions which have caused harm or distress - 鈥淲hat鈥檚 done is done鈥� and 鈥淣on, Je Ne Regret Rien鈥�. He explores, too, the middle ground where our past actions are not so terrible that they must forever be regretted, but where we might also gain from acknowledging our shortcomings and the effect they have had on others.

Is it ever right just to 鈥檉orget about it鈥� and 鈥榤ove on鈥� or do we owe it to the people we have hurt to acknowledge our responsibility for their pain?

A Unique Broadcasting Company production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4