Lately I find myself in the ironic position of teaching my eleven-year-old son that his thoughts control his perceptions and his feelings. You know, when he starts teasing someone and gets teased back and suddenly he’s really upset. Or nobody is teasing him but he thinks they are and he gets really upset. That sort of thing.

His reaction is to get indignant and see himself as a victim and feel really hurt. Then he tries to find someone to make the other person stop teasing or taunting.

I’ve been explaining we can’t control what the nearly 7 billion people on the planet say, but each of us can choose our own thoughts. We don’t have to let something bother us. We don’t have to give our power away.

We don’t have to freak out when those idiots whip right in front of us on the freeway and we almost hit them.

[wince] No, I don’t say that. I just think about it.

That’s why this is more than ironic. I think the universe is taunting me. That’s a downright smartass thing to do!