A prayer of an atheist.

Thanks Richard for your words. I wrote the initial message in the fit of depression, from watching the news. Of course, my sense of guilt, whether misplaced or correctly placed, is immaterial. Your message reminded me of a prayer that I learned from a Hallmark card (and I do not mean this sarcastically.. even though I first learned it from a Hallmark card, I believe this is one of the most lovely and wise prayers). "Lord, grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot, and the wisdom always to tell the difference." The most important part, in my opinion, of that prayer is "the wisdom always" part. The lack of courage should never be paraded around as the serenity, nor the lack of serenity be mistaken as courage, and the neither should be substituted for the wisdom. But that is the tough part, isn't it? What can we change, and what can't we change, but must accept? We all fumble through this one in our lives, I suppose. I do not make any claims to "the wisdom." I only have an opinion as to its approximation. I just happened to believe that "fretting on the things that have passed and on the things to come" is an important part of the widsom, imagination, inspiration, conviction, and courage. I think of things that are not, because I do not choose to accept all the things as they are. Perhaps, I may be a fool. Of course, when we talk about changes, and if we are using an individual as an arbitrary reference unit, both changes within and without are inter-related, and not easily separable.^^ Gad.. This sounds nasty. How about this? As we change the world, the world changes you, and as you change yourself, you change a bit of the world.^^ In short, I agree with your suggestion that I do what I can to improve myself and to be responsible for those immediately around me. Or as the bumper stickers say: "Think Globally, Act Locally."^^ Thanks for relieving some of my sense of guilt. Despite the fact that I am an atheist in belief, the catholic guilt is not something that can easily be gotten rid of. You can take a boy out of the Catholic Church, but you can't take the catholic out of the boy!^^ Thanks and take care