SERENITY NOW!

[fox]

this was the rallying cry of my friend's bridal party three months ago, and i'm invoking it again now for my own personal use. it works better this way, i've found, than it does repeated as a mantra. you mutter i am serene ... i am serene ... i am serene ... to yourself enough times, and pretty soon another voice in your head is going yeah, right ... in your dreams ... you're talking to yourself in the mirror again ... really bad sign. but if you shout SERENITY NOW! and raise your fist (or both fists!) and get triumphant or at least defiant, it's a lot easier to remain serene -- and, therefore, also detached and calm and patient and all the rest of those things.

i will not pick up the phone. not until it rings. which it will. it will. SERENITY NOW!