Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

The Desiderata is less a prayer than an invocation or, even better, a dismissal.

But it is prayerful and I remember it as a prayer. Here I am trying to proceed through my prayers in order of frequency. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Desiderata adorned my closet door and the rooms of many, even most, of my peers. For us it was especially useful as a silent rebuke to our parent's generation.

We did not often say aloud the words and I cannot recall kneeling in silent recitation. But I can recall studying the words and deploying them in conversation or - more accurately - argument.

I had not thought of the Desiderata or read it for at least thirty years. Yesterday as I googled to find it I expected something saccharin, self-congratulatory, and superficial.

It is not - or need not be - any of these things, but I expect these terms accurately reflect how I last read it. At fifteen I heard the words as self-affirming and critical of others. At more than fifty I am - thank God - a bit more self-critical.

Prayer is derived from the Latin precari meaning to ask or woo. Our English word precarious shares the same derivation and tells us something of the nature of prayer that we may too often neglect.