Chapter 3 Serenity

     During Chapter 3, the reader sees Billy Pilgrim in his modern life. It shows him in his office at work and it shows a special prayer that he keeps on his wall. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to always tell the difference. In this prayer, Billy expresses many things that he cannot change which include his past. No matter what he does, his past is always going to be the same. When the prayer talks about the courage to change the things I can, it talks about his future. One thing in his life that he can control is his future and the way that he deals with his past. His future can be whatever he wants it to be; it does not have to have anything to do with his past. He also has to remember the last line of the prayer "And the wisdom to know the difference". He knows that there are some things in his life that he can change and some that he can not. He needs to spend his time focusing on what he can change and not worry about the things he cannot change.
     The prayer above can also be used in our daily lives. Just as Billy has things in his life he cannot change, we also have things that cannot be changed. We need to accept that there will be certain things in our lives that we have absolutely no control over, but there are also things that we control! We cannot change our past, but we have complete control over our future. We need to spend all of our time focusing on what we can be and what we can become, instead of worrying about what our past has shaped us into. Just as Billy Pilgrim, we need to accept the things we cannot change, have the courage to accept the things we can, and have the courage to know the difference.