The power of prayer, ritual inside our helplessness
In the movie based upon Jane AustenöÏÓãÊÓƵapp classic novel Sense and Sensibility, thereöÏÓãÊÓƵapp a very poignant scene where one of her young heroines, suffering from acute pneumonia, is lying in bed hovering between life and death. A young man, very much in love with her, is pacing back and forth, highly agitated, frustrated by his helplessness to do anything of use, and literally jumping out of his skin. Unable to contain his agitation any longer, he goes to the girlöÏÓãÊÓƵapp mother and asks what he might do to be helpful. She replies that thereöÏÓãÊÓƵapp nothing he can do, the situation is beyond them. Unable to live with that response he says to her: “Give me some task to do, or I shall go mad!â€