“We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it”

“We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it” is one of the Promises read at the end of almost every Alcoholics Anonymous meeting Dan Torrance attends. Its paired claims—living without regret and refusing to close the door on the past—meet a more complicated reality in Dan: he expects regret to endure, but has begun to accept that the past cannot simply be put away.

The Promise at Meetings

The phrase reaches Dan as part of a repeated meeting practice, not as an isolated piece of advice. Near the end of almost every meeting, someone reads the Promises; the recurrence gives this particular statement a place within the ordinary rhythm of his recovery. Its wording offers an aspiration, while Dan’s response registers how difficult that aspiration is for someone who remains tender and vulnerable.

Dan’s Reading of the Past

Dan thinks he will always regret what has happened. At the same time, he has quit trying to shut the door on it. His reasoning is bluntly practical: the door would come open again, because it has no latch, let alone a lock. The image turns the Promise’s figurative door into something that cannot be secured; for Dan, trying to exclude the past is futile, even if regret itself has not disappeared.

Context and Significance

This response comes as the visions that plagued Dan after his arrival in Frazier have ceased. He still often thinks of Deenie and her little boy, but those thoughts hurt less than before. That easing does not amount to a declaration that he no longer regrets the past: the Promise instead gives shape to a narrower change, his decision to stop trying to shut it out. Dan’s distinction between continuing regret and abandoning avoidance makes the line a measure of imperfect, ongoing acceptance rather than a claim that recovery has erased pain.