You can('t) always feel what you want

There is pleasure sure in being mad that none but madmen know.

Living in the bay area, in this technocracy, in the second most educated city in America, hanging out with smart law students and attorneys, I've come to buy into the illusion of control extending into our own emotions.

But it ain't so.

Today on the radio, my brother and I heard a DJ talk about his ongoing sexual relationship with a man who was in a long-term open relationship. He received assurances from his fellow DJ and callers that the open relationship was going to be fine and was not his to worry about. While he acknowledged that the open relationship seemed ok, he persisted in feeling worried and guilty for being "the other woman". He got somewhat upset at being told not to feel guilty.

From which I gleaned:
1) We are often attached to the feelings we have

But also

2) We often are unable to be talked out of feeling what we feel, even if we want to be.

photo: Self-Reflection by kton25