POEM + WORD
AUTHOR NARRATION
Read by the author in the original English.
THE EPONYMOUSLY PUNNED-UPON 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.THE EVIDENCE SURVIVES
These are slightly cartoonified versions of real photos from my iPhone—of the apartment and the man this poem is about.
ON THE POEM
A HIDDEN ETYMOLOGY
The poem’s claim is more literal than it may seem: passion and suffering share an old history.
Move the circle across the image to see passion’s other meaning. On a touchscreen, touch the image.
English passion came through Old French from Late Latin passio, “suffering” or “enduring,” which in turn comes from pati, “to endure” or “to suffer.”
Its earliest English sense referred specifically to Christ’s suffering and death: the Passion of Christ. The modern sense of intense emotion, desire, or devotion came later. The word therefore holds both ideas at once: what moves us deeply, and what we are willing — or compelled — to endure for it.
Explore the word history ↗ETYMOLOGY
The word “serendipity” comes from a story about three princes from Serendip, an old name for what is now Sri Lanka.
THE PLACE
Serendip—also written Serendib or Sarandib—was a Persian and Arabic name for the island now called Sri Lanka. In the Persian tale The Three Princes of Serendip, the king’s sons leave their homeland and travel through the world.
THE TALE
As they travel, the princes notice small clues and draw startlingly accurate conclusions about things they were not seeking. In the best-known episode, their observations allow them to describe a missing camel they have never actually seen.
THE WORD
The English writer Horace Walpole coined serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann. Remembering the princes, he used it for the ability to make unexpected discoveries through a mixture of accident and sagacity—chance meeting a mind alert enough to recognize it.
READER DISCUSSION
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