I've been reading around* late fashion great Andre Leon Talley for a few months now. In the midst of a book (_The Fashionable Savages_) that Talley mentions was an influencer in his work, I found this quote (see image on left). Author John Fairchild is talking with socialite, philanthropist and style goddess Kitty Miller who reveals she reads this "prayer" (quotes are Fairchild's) to herself once a month.
At first I scoffed. Miller's words are more like wishes than a prayer. Five coins tossed into a fountain. But honestly, I do the same. "Help me to be more patient with my child," I sing to myself. "Stay in your own lane,". Sometimes I say, "please keep ___safe." or "please can ___ find comfort and strength in her healing and recovery." My prayers are usually that kind of specific ("please can ___'s test come back clear,") and while they sound nothing like the Our Father's of my childhood, I linger with them and feel every word.
"Typical wealthy white lady thinking only of herself," I thought to myself. While that wasn't entirely wrong, I missed the point. The words we share is what matters. The threading together of language that has personal meaning and offering it to the universe, God, a higher power, whatever. That's of consequence, not what we label the language. Maybe another reminder that when we expand our definition of what "counts", we allow more people in.
With that in mind, do you pray? I wonder what your words are.