Seems like mostly we don’t decide what we’re going to like. We just like it and go with that. I know I never decided to like blue, or trees, or not flossing. It just came to me. Like seafood – it’s not my fault it came with lemon-butter sauce.

I never heard anyone say, “You know, I think I’ll like opera.” Either you’re a caterwaulin’ fool or you ain’t. I’ve heard people say opera is an acquired taste, but how would one acquire such a thing on purpose? The opera lovers I know enjoyed it from the get-go, or came to love it without volition, by some mysterious subterranean acoustic process.

A lot of liking comes from infancy and youth, obviously. The formative years, when liking something may or may not be the result of decision. One baby likes pap, the other, breasts. Ask them why.

Teenagers may be involved in actual like-decision-making, though my tormented memories of the time yield few clues as to my own decision-making process. Mostly decisions were made for me. I liked bellbottoms. Don’t think I ever sat down and decided I would love to laugh, but ended up with the funniest bunch of people I ever knew. Laughter was our secret initiation ceremony. Pretty loud secret, but sometimes the best place to hide stuff is in the open.

One thing I do know about deciding to like: it’s rarely done after adulthood. I sure have tried to change my ancient inclinations, or at least tried to try, if reading books and thinking about it a lot counts. Or joining cults and ritual circles. Or paying people to make me change. Still indolence remains my obsession; my holy grail: comfort, my utltima thule – a nap.

What’s up with that? Can it really be true that mine mission in this life is to goof off as much as possible? I can hear my ancestors now, “Yeah that Uncle Tom, he sure was one for enjoying his leisure. You do know they have his mattress in the Hall of Fame? A tough legacy to follow, that’s for sure.”

I must have decided to like work at least a thousand times. No joy in Mudville, yet.

The thing that brought this to my attention was a sudden barrage of positive thinking from many sides, from daily inspirational emails, to affirmative tweets, to Abe Lincoln, with his assertion that folks are about has happy as they decide to be. As a Man Thinketh, so do he beith. It’s so very true. Thanks, Buddha, for the insight.

Change your thoughts and change what you like. Change what you like and you change who you are. 

Would it were easy. It takes a will of iron to make a will of iron. I decide to be strong and fearless. The only way to do that is to be strong and fearless.

Liking can be changed by decision. Problem is, the decision is the least of it. Changing is the trick.

Boink!

Ta da,

LWIII