Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Serenity Prayer You Know Is New Age Bullshit

While I was in the Navy, I took part in a 4 week program that included some counseling and other "self-esteem" activities. It got me off the ship for 4 weeks.

While there, I learned a concept most of us have heard called "The Serenity Prayer":
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I also learned an addition which I incorporated myself:

And the apathy to not give a shit.

I used to listen to Mark Passio's podcast. It's generally informative, but he gets very repetitive and argumentative on some topics. I eventually got tired of his militant tirades in favor of vegetarianism. I also have to evaluate how I spent my time with my podcasts, and the time spent on Passio's for the value I got lost out. Whenever Passio produces some exceptional content, Richard Grove usually puts it into his "Peace Revolution" podcast.

One such exceptional piece was Passio's presentation "New Age Bullshit And the Suppression of the Sacred Masculine." In exchange for seven hours of your time (totally worth it) you can watch the presentation here:


This is where I was introduced to the original serenity prayer, before it was dumbed down and pussified. "The courage to change the things I can" sounds really weak, doesn't it?

The original (cited by Passio) is:


God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

The courage to change the things which should be changed, I think, is a much better attitude about life. Far too many of us use the excuse "well, I can't change that, so I'll just have to accept it." This perspective absolves you of that excuse. If it should be changed, then get it changed.

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