A Bonus Item!

On this Friday, I certainly hope you had a few good laughs from the weekday series Ten Great Tips for 2011.

No doubt, by now, you’ve either heard about, or read the Serenity Prayer. Attributed to Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971), the prayer‘s most renown part reads, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can change, And wisdom to know the difference.”

There is a second, perhaps lesser-known part, which adds, “Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.”

It’s a wonderful prayer, and worthy of our consideration in our own walk of life, as we strive to examine our own lives.

And yet, that prayer is not quite what I had in mind when I began this entry.

However, in order to fully appreciate the entry I did have in mind, one must be familiar with the Serenity Prayer, so I thought it could be helpful to some, and hopefully, it’s been helpful to all. (When I learned it, I had no idea there was a second part!)

Nevertheless…

Here, in all its unabashed glory is the “Senility Prayer.”

 

THE SENILITY PRAYER
– Grant me the senility to forget the people
I never liked anyway,
– The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
– The eyesight to tell the difference.