Positive Thinking #3

This is my third and last post on positive thinking, for now. I'd like to recommend another website: Self Esteem To Go, written by Zoltan Roth. Zoltan has left a couple of comments on my blog, so I went to check out his website. He has had an interesting life: born in Hungary, he qualified as a teacher, then emigrated to the USA, learned English, and re-qualified as a massage therapist. He has written articles on self-esteem for several other websites and e-zines. His website offers lots of information about positive thinking, self-esteem, self-confidence and so on. Well worth a look.

And here's a slightly different take on positive thinking. I had some friends staying over last night: Al and Vajra, and their two daughters, Phoebe aged 8 and Rebecca who is five and three-quarters. Rebecca has a docile angelic demeanour that belies a fierce intelligence, a wicked sense of humour, and a mischievous streak as wide as the English channel. Over dinner, Al told us how Rebecca had recently started sucking her thumb, and Phoebe had started biting her nails. So, Al said, they'd talked about this all together, and they'd decided to use 'Stop 'n' Grow', a vile-tasting but harmless product that can be painted onto nails. Phoebe was nodding sagely. I looked at Rebecca and she was wearing her most winsome expression.

'It worked on me,' Phoebe said, and held out her hands for me to see.

'Lovely nails, well done!' I said. 'What about you, Rebecca?'

'It didn't work on me,' she said, her face serious.

'Do you know why?' I asked.

She nodded and broke into a 5000 kilowatt grin. 'I gave them the other thumb.'

'She did!' Phoebe crowed. 'But she didn't do anything wrong. Mum or Dad would say "give me your thumb," and Rebecca did what she was told.'

I couldn't help but laugh at Rebecca's audacity. I looked at Al and Vajra to see if they minded, but they were laughing too.

'For weeks,' Vajra said, inbetween giggles, 'and we never realised.'