Comments on: The Serenity Prayer

By: Detached Openness — Frozen Toothpaste

Detached Openness — Frozen Toothpaste — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:49:06 +0000

[…] Ideally, we do this with all thing. We strive to see what good is unfolding without seeking to shape or change what we cannot. When something changes over which we have no control, we recognize it and seek to find good in the new order of thing. When something doesn’t change that we want to, we reassess and accept the unchanged situation without getting emotional. (Yes, I did basically steal this from the Serenity Prayer.) […]

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:53:55 +0000

One could rightly critique both versions of the prayer for not being completely clear about what distinguishes between “things I cannot change” and “things I can.”

I always thought the last line represented a “punch line” — a reminder that “knowing the difference” often isn’t so easy, which is why you need the wisdom!

By: GarnetDavid

GarnetDavid — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:40:15 +0000

Found you through the Humanist Symposium.

The problem with this little prayer, as you elaborated, is the lack of group thinking. Our culture and society tends to think of ourselves as islands, or ships, alone in the sea of the big world. Group thinking and acting is the only way to combat the big problems. But taking that attitude in a country built on “me” doing what “I” want, is a battle in itself.

Thank you for contributing some good thinking toward that goal.

Garnet David

By: Unkie Herb

Unkie Herb — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:58:58 +0000

Your last point, about the dangers of the accepting too much, is a strong one. The final line of the prayer, regarding the wisdom to discern where change can be made, is it’s key.

Good call, Leslie .

By: leslie

leslie — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:02:13 +0000

The capricious part of me wants to combine this post with the fair-tax post…

By: C. L. Hanson

C. L. Hanson — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:59:33 +0000

That’s a very good point. I hadn’t thought about the “serenity prayer” in terms of the danger of lumping the big problems you can’t solve alone into the category of “things to just give up on and accept.” If you can make evan a small difference on a big problem, then it’s not time to wisely accept the problem as insurmountable.

Personally, I’ve always thought of the “serenity prayer” in terms of relationships and not trying to change people against their will. I talked about this in my post about the secular version of the same proverb: If there’s no solution, there’s no problem.