I’ve been thinking a lot about the serenity prayer lately. I remember feeling much more serene— or at least able to feel it upon occasion— in the before times. Before politics, certainly. Before Danielle Smith most definitely.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
The thing is that the serenity prayer was meant as a personal meditation. What could one personally do to have courage to change the things they can? Well, I can go to bed at a decent time. I can count to ten when my temper flares. I can remind myself that right here, right now, in this moment, I am not affected by the exceptionally stupid things my government is doing. Yes, there are many things that can be done, personally, to enjoy a moment of serenity.
I do not, however, live in that moment for much longer than it takes to imagine it, though I will say it was lovely and I should probably do it more often; even to just enjoy it for a brief, oh so brief, time.
In case anyone outside of the province was curious, I guarantee there was a shared guffaw in Alberta upon hearing Danielle Smith say that she is committed to Alberta remaining in Canada in both a public address on Thursday evening and in her introduction to a press conference Friday afternoon. She even declared that she would be voting in favour of Alberta remaining in Canada. I enjoyed a laugh out loud moment on Friday after an opinion columnist for the National Post asked her if she would resign if the remain side lost to “your side” (27:00 mark).
I’m not certain her words will override the many actions she took to help the separatists get to this point. A majority of Albertans never wanted to have the conversation Alberta’s Premier has declared needs to happen because people are still angry; mostly about falsely believing that the 1980’s recession was caused by Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program. It’s not easy to have a conversation with people who are unaware there was a global recession at the same time.
