Of all the aphorisms ever inscribed on greeting cards and stitched onto throw pillows, the most frustrating is that ubiquitous snippet of 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,” it says, suggesting that the difference is objective — that there’s a discernible, even clear line between reasonable hope and pitiable delusion, between premature and mature surrender. Sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes it just won’t come into focus.
“Stab” is maybe a bit dramatic, but it’s not too far off.