Re: [ADS-L] Serenity Prayer - slightly OT

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Perhaps it seemed to someone in the 1930s that Bethany's emendation would
border on the violation of some Gricean postulate or other ("Don't give
unnecessary information"?): obviously, we do not ask the Higher Power to give us the
courage to change the things that don't need changing.

Of course, as Bethany notes, one might need some divine wisdom in sorting out
not only the things that can be changed from the things that cannot but also
the things that should be changed from the things that should not (as the
earlier versions of the prayer suggest). That would be a different issue from the
one that the prayer explicitly raises. Still, the earlier versions have found
a way to confront the additional issue without adding unduly to the
conciseness of the poem.

In a message dated 7/14/08 11:21:59 AM, bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU writes:


> On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 8:10 AM, Bethany Dumas <bethany.dumas at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for all the posts re the Serenity Prayer. I have long used it and
> > valued it, even wondered about its elusive history, even though I have
> also
> > long thought that it needs revision. It recognizes that some things can be
> > changed, while some things cannot be changed, and it recognizes the
> > importance of serenity, courage, and wisdom. But it fails to recognize
> > something equally important, I think - some things DO NOT NEED TO BE
> > CHANGED. My experience is that it is not always clear to humans that that
> is
> > true.
> >
> > Fred, perhaps you will find an early revised version.
>
> To be fair, Neibuhr's 1943 formulation included "courage to change the
> things that *should* be changed." And various other versions use
> "should," "can and should," "ought to," etc.
>




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