We can choose what we think about as well as how we think about it.  In the further words of Wallace, this is one of life’s “great and terrible truth[s].”  In each situation we encounter, we can choose whether we view it as mundane or extraordinary.  We can decide whether it’s frustrating or amusing.  We can elect to see our circumstances as oppressive or inspiring.

And while we don’t always feel as though we have the energy, or simply the desire, to reinterpret our experiences in a more positive light, just knowing that we can brings a tremendous sense of power.

From this space, we can find joy within hardship, we can find compassion when someone treats us unkindly, and we can find hope when all seems amiss.

[L]earning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.

— David Foster Wallace, This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Does it help you to know that you can control how you interpret the events around you?