The Serenity Prayer

The 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. 

(pg. 60)

Billy Pilgrim is continiously living his past through his present and meanwhile easily accepting the future. He knows and understand that he can´t, under any circunstance change anything about it. “All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist”. This suggests that life is what it is, he continues to follow his life philosophy of “So it goes”.  Although Billy is unenthusiastic about living, this quote, for some reason gives him hope and strength to keep on going.

Destiny is the value of this prayer. Life has a plan that will follow the same path until the end. There will be obstacles on the way, however the path wont be disturbed. With this in mind, life will flow more smoothly and it will make the difficult or unwanted moments easier to accept.

The Trafalmadoians have the same philosophy with the exception that it’s not g-d who influences their power to follow it, but rather their own nature. For a human like Billy, g-d is the driving force behind his acceptance for the unchanging past, present and future. Having this prayer in his office reminds him everyday that life and destiny has to be accepted.  
Personally, I disagree with Billy. Life is not based on destiny and I disagree with the Trlfamadorians when they say that life is planned beforehand. Everyone can alter their lofe by making good or bad decisions. Having a prayer that refurrs t ypur philosophy stuck in your office may draft your mind away from reality. In A Brave New World by Adoux Husley, a technique called  hypnopaedia is used to educare pepones mines from early development. Repetitions may get you to fully belief something, but it may not always be true or lead you through a correct path of life and believes.