Serenity Prayer

Almost a century ago an American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, created a very powerful serenity prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

I have been thinking about it very deeply of late. And to me, it appears that, this is the key to that elusive happiness that we keep chasing all our lives. For in not following this is what we invite the full wrath of the unfortunate and disappointing events in our lives.

How? Elementary my dear friends. We perennially refuse to accept the things that we cannot change. We are inspired by the dozens of forwarded inspirational motivations to challenge the status quo. And it is here we often falter. For we do not seem to be a great judge of identifying what we can change, what we cannot and all the dark traumas that the abyss in between has.

In a world of the new order that is resplendent with its glorious moral turpitude of the many, where the mass lies are consumed as the gospel truth, where rumours hold the value of hard facts and where the confluence of the evil has amassed its own ugly creed, the usual moral vigilante is but destined to be lynched by the brute force of this mammoth clan of those many who are often threatened by the few whose moralities cannot be compromised.

Look around you and you will see the worst of us better off. The best usually spend lifetimes in seeking approvals of the worst.. which in itself is one of the most catastrophic ironies of the so called fate. And the code of the brotherhood of these social & moral termites is very sharp in recognising the faintest glint of creative streaks of the one who can make a difference to a community, society, creed, organisation, culture or civilisation… and are well versed in the art of ruthlessly squishing any such perpetrators of change… for this mob of corrupted corrugated mindsets are collectively too powerful for the individuality of the incorruptible to survive.

And it is here that one requires the serenity prayer. Yes the creators will certainly argue that if this prayer were to be answered, then how would the world have progressed with all its warriors accepting the status quo, and only changing what they can. If that were to be the truth then no creation or advancement would have ever been effected. Mankind would have never traversed across the universe or why, planes wouldn’t have flown or diseases never been cured or technology never advanced etc etc.

It’s here that we have to understand the prayer in its right spirit. No man enchained to the servitude mindset having pawned his capabilities for equated monthly bribe can ever create a dime’s worth of innovation let alone get the humanity forward or challenge the status quo. If you don’t believe me all you need to do is arm yourselves with intellectual luminols and investigate the millions of desks and boardrooms that have the gory stains of the sacrificial brilliance splattered across their entire area.. where time and again excellence has been battered & smothered senseless 🤓

To make a change worth its salt to anyone concerned requires independence of the soul & spirit… if you don’t have the luxury of operating in independent arena then the second & third line of the prayer immediately applies to you. Sit back, relax and train yourself to not get worked up by the conflict of the right and the instructed… for the bribe that you have sold your creative streak for presupposes your sacrifice of any remnants of conscience. Do what you are told and do it well. As much as you might be mollycoddled with the unmeant diktats to think out of the box, read in between the lines.. you are supposed to pledge your soul to the dingy darkness of that box and enjoy their resultant luminous perks. And if you in some silent corner of sedated conscience feel that you are kind of suspended on a ruthless corporate judas cradle, stifle your conscience immediately and get set to follow. For in this arena only a humble follower can ever conspire to be a great leader…

And if you obsessively feel the need to do the right, be a creator and not a paid parasite… be the tip of the compass needle for humanity… make a difference to any of your touchpoints… chase the best in you… unleash your true potential… be the beacon of excellence… feel alive in every proton of your every drop of your existential atom … throbbing with relentless excitement of having done something meaningful.., of having converted your potential for the heroic in you to reality… of having a clear conscience that knows no bondage or fear .. then unshackle your mind from servitude of the mediocrity and promote yourself & become an entrepreneur of life. Trade your creativity for happiness and shun the parasitic gospel that you have been engrained with right from your schooling to the commercialisation of your abilities through whatever ideological infection that you have been infected with by those who you handed the moulding of your conscience to. And if you are limited by your experiences and are a circumstantial victim of such a decadent dogma then venture out into chasing new experiences that complement your happiness and decorate the remaining journey of your life with the shade of blissful knowledge that you are a free bird chasing whatever makes you happy and not an imprisoned puppet of the destiny represented by the cataclysmic imbecile whom you had pawned your soul chasing abominable plugolas in return for loathsome douceurs of stifled talent.

And if you can’t do that.. then my friend… kneel down humbly, summon all the timelessly encoded divinity in you and with folded hands and blinded intellect beseech the universe to grant you the last line of the serenity prayer… of availing the wisdom to know the difference between that what you cannot change (yourself) and things that you can change (nothing really) and bask in the glory of a life that never knew it’s possibilities … potential and never ever wanted to explore.

Learn to remain happy in the dark panes of the photocopier of life and revel in the blankness of clarity that the virgin pages of your life churn out everyday… it’s only USP being it’s abominable uniformity of nothingness… churned out daily .. & destiny shall reward you for happily continuing to always remain in the box and always thinking out of it as instructed.

Amen!