Autosuggestion

"Dear Heavenly Father, please help me accept the things that I'm too lazy to do anything about¹."     But there is no god; your "heavenly father" neither hears nor answers your prayers.     However, the fact that you are praying indicates a desire to change your ability to accept things. Therein lies the seed of personal growth. I recommend that you give up magical thinking and try autosuggestion—a realistic, proven psychological technique for changing things that are within your scope of influence.     Before you go to sleep at night, focus on the desired outcome and generate an expectation that you will have it. You might even try focusing on dissolving your laziness and doing something about those things you allude to.² ______________

1. Thanks to P.C. Vey's cartoon in the current issue of New Yorker Magazine for suggesting the prayer.
2. I drafted this item in communication with my old friend Fred, whom I had asked to look at the "syllogisms" I had published so far and tell me what he thought.     He replied: "I don't have any training in logic, so can't comment along those lines.     "Didn't know that Muslim means slave of god. Since Mohammed created his own religion/god, I suppose one could say he was a slave of himself. Not that I know what that would mean.     "It strikes me in general that using logic to attack religion (the supreme non-logical activity) is like playing very good football, but with your opponent actually in a different stadium and playing, say, badminton or lacrosse. You won't beat him, no matter how well you play your game. Maybe another analogy would be trying to use a mousetrap to catch a smoke ring. The trap snaps, but the smoke remains."     Fred's note prompts me to try to be generous toward people who have built their house on the sand of religion [an ironic allusion to Matthew 7:24-27]. Forgive them their sins for they know not what they do? Thus, I included in this post some constructive practical advice for them.