The Boy on Top
'You take the guilt, file it, and live on.'
Well put. And true. You've made justifiable decisions and your 'punishment' for being in a position to do so is the luxury, in a sense, of feeling guilty about it.
But if you really feel guilty, is there something you can do about it? Could you influence your company to sponsor, for example, a science or art fair at the local school Pete could have gone to? And then you give your time to help out. Or maybe there's something else you can give, in time or money, to the community.
Presumably, if a catholic confesses, to be forgiven he both has to repent and stop doing it. Or do something useful to make up for it.
C'est vrai, atonement is part of dealing with guilt. I thought I don't have an answer for yet. TB
This whole "public" = "private" thing in UK English just keeps us Murrican English folks confused.
But I can help you:
There, there, it's all right now.
... Oh, wait -- you want someone in the same room.
Never mind.
It helps all the same! I'm Canadian, but lived 'here' for 14 years now, and I still get it mixed up in conversation. TB
An old school pal, Catholic, told me about Catholic guilt...but ohhh...there's no guilt like the guilt that an East Indian mamma can wring from her child. I think Italian mammas too, ohhh, they're good, they're good. They can make you do anything for them using the ol' guilt 
Ah, parental twisting of guilt, an old standbye and I think not restricted to mothers of any race or religion! TB
And Jewish mamma's too...don't mess with them..oooh no...
I don't live with guilt anymore. I don't atone either. That, I think, is a mental whitewash.
But, I do talk to God and hope He hears and understands...then I move on..much better than offloading on a possibly pervy old git in a wooden confessional.
You are so right! The Catholics think they have the corner on guilt. But for everything I've ever witnessed (and I went to a Catholic uni - but not Catholic myself) they have it easy. They have fabricated a zillion ways to deal w/ guilt and unload the burden. For Christ's sake! They are the ones who used to buy themselves into heaven with indulgences! I think we agnostics have it the toughest! We feel guilty but don't know if we should or not and then feel guilty about our uncertainty!
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