Embracing Serenity: The Profound Influence of the Serenity Prayer on Our Journey Through Alcoholics Anonymous and Stoic Philosophy.
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Upon my initial entry into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, I was immediately struck by the profound familiarity of the Serenity Prayer. My father, deeply entrenched in our cherished program until his passing in 2009—a well-seasoned participant of thirty-five years, collected thirty-five AA coins, each emblazoned with this prayer. Additionally, among their possessions, my father and stepmother maintained an AA-themed salt and pepper shaker adorned with the prayer, a constant reminder etched into the ceramic between the burners of their stovetop.
The prayer was not foreign to me.
As a devotee of Stoic Philosophy, even in my drinking years (I’m a slow learner), I noticed great similarities in the simple words of our prayer to the philosophies of Emporer Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and the other greats.
The Serenity Prayer, written by Reinhold Niebuhr, an important theologian, deeply influenced the political life of his time and courageously opposed Nazism in a period when most in his church backed U.S. neutrality. He was a prolific writer and thinker and a great influencer of Protestantism to this day.
American Political Scientist Hans Joachim Morgenthau called him the greatest living political philosopher in America.
The original words of his prayer, which he often used in his sermons:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. —Reinhold Niebuhr, The Serenity Prayer (1943)
This version varies in words but with the basic tenet intact from the version most of us in the program recite:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
If one compares the Serenity Prayer to the Stoic Agenda, the similarities are striking:
Therefore, to avoid unhappiness, frustration, and disappointment, we need to do two things: control those things that are within our power–namely, our beliefs, judgments, desires, and attitudes–and be indifferent or apathetic to those things that are not in our power—things external to us—Political Theorist and Scholar, William R. Connolly, on Stoicism.
Rote prayer, in my opinion, is the recitation of a mantra if one reflects deeply on its words. It is a simple way to indoctrinate ourselves with meaningful ideas and expressions that create powerful images in our minds that will translate into even more positive physical transactions as we navigate through the complexities of our lives in a world gone crazy.
By accepting the challenges and personalities we cannot change and bravely tackling those we can, we free ourselves from a regretful past and fear of an uncertain future. We’re left with a sense of wisdom where we learn the difference between the two and free ourselves to live in a state of harmonic serenity.
In those moments of peace, each of us finds the strength to transform our lives and influence the lives of others so that we all may live in the universal frequency of goodwill and brotherhood.
It is here that we find meaningful and lasting sobriety—addict or not.