Devon Hunter

Well, boys and girls… how about that rant yesterday? Whew. Well, I feel better…

But now I need to take a moment to come back to center and recognize that although there are people who (without necessarily planning it) frustrate, anger, and hurt me, there are so many others who soothe me and make me feel loved. Thank you for your many kindnesses…

Before I got sidetracked by a thoroughly discouraging week in Atlanta, I was sharing excerpts of my favorite novel, “The Last of the Wine” by Mary Renault. Here we see Alexias (the narrator) with his lover/friend Lysis preparing for the battle that would ultimately dislodge the The Thirty (a group of tyrants who were put in control by the Spartans after Athens was defeated in the Pelopennesian War). This selection is relevant to me just now, because it offers a nice prayer that reminds me (in a way) of the Serenity Prayer:

Just before the trumpet, Lysis and I stood on the walls, and looked down the Cleft of the Chriot, to see Athens shine, clear gold picked out with shadows, in the slanting winter sun. I turned to him and said, “You look sad, Lysis. It has been good here, but we are going to be better.”

He smiled at me and said, “Amen, and so be it.” The he was silent for a time, looking out at the High City, and leaning on his spear.

“What is it?” I said; for my mind was full of memories, which I felt he shared.

“I was thinking,” he said, “of the sacrifice just now, and of how one ought to pray. It is right for men setting out on a just enterprise to commend it to heaven. But for oneself… We have entreated many things of the gods, Alexias. Sometimes they gave, and sometimes they saw it otherwise. So today I petitioned them as Sokrates once taught us:

‘All-Knowing Zeus, give me what is best for me. Avert evil from me, though it be the thing I prayed for; and give me the good which from ignorance I do not ask.’”

Before I could reply to him, the trumpet sounded, and we went down to the gate…