Status-Q

While we’re on the subject of prayer — not, I admit, a regular topic in this blog — there’s another traditional one that often comes to mind. This time, it’s when I’m putting things in the recycling bin. I’m sure you must have had a similar experience.

Anybody old who, like me, grew up in the Anglican Church, will remember this oft-repeated phrase from the Book of Common Prayer:

We have offended against thy holy laws.
We have left undone those things
which we ought to have done;
and we have done those things
which we ought not to have done;
and there is no health in us.

As I carefully separate the rubbish into the blue ‘recycling’ bin and the black ‘non-recyclable’ bin, there are always some items about which I am unsure, and I mumble to myself:

We have left unrecycled those things
which we ought to have recycled;
and we have recycled those things
which we ought not to have recycled.

Does anyone know, as a general rule, which is the greater sin? Or are there too many variables involved to generalise?

Anybody getting involved in any organisation’s pre-existing IT infrastructure could probably benefit from pausing, reflecting, and sending a prayer heavenward. I recommend this well-known one, written nearly a century ago by Reinhold Niebuhr. It is usually called the ‘Serenity Prayer’, but I’d be willing to bet he really had IT consultants in mind at the time.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Actually, that’s probably the key to any successful consultancy business…