GROSS: So, in the spirit of reflection about whether you will have a higher power in your life and what that higher power will be, how are you thinking about it? Like, are you reading things you hadn't read before? I mean, how do you figure that out? 
Transcript
GROSS: So, in the spirit of reflection about whether you will have a higher power in your life and what that higher power will be, how are you thinking about it? Like, are you reading things you hadn't read before? I mean, how do you figure that out?
CARR: One of the things that I'm doing is praying, which seems like a really uncomfortable, unnatural activity for me. It's to whom, to what, about what. You know, I have a prayer in my wallet that I'm saying...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
CARR: ...and I feel like a complete fraud while I'm doing it. But it's the act of acknowledging that there may be something else out there. And so it isn't - I haven't really thought it through, but I think the behavior and the activity will sort of lead to something good. Anything that sort of gets me into a place of something less than self-obsession and gets me into a place of some humility, not even acknowledging a higher power, but that other people exist and they're not here as an extension of my world - I think that part of the reason I got involved in journalism is I just - I love the stories of other people. I mean, everybody's got a story to tell. It - I just - when all these layoff stories were coming, I was just thinking to myself, good Lord, what if I would have to go and get a real job? How horrible would that be? Because I don't - I do - what I do as something of a caper, not really work.
GROSS: Can I ask what the prayer that you're keeping in your pocket is?
CARR: Sure. Let me look at it. It's really full of, like, thees and thous and I think it's the prayer of St. Francis, what it would be known - programmatically, again, no names mentioned, is kind of a third-step prayer. I'm not comfortable reading the whole thing. But what it talks about is to offer yourself to God to build with you as God would see fit. And then the important part to me is to relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will. And then it goes on to say, take away my difficulties. Of course, everyone prays for that. We all do - and that victory over them will bear witness to a power greater than yourselves, and just says may I do thy will always. I don't really know who I'm talking about when I say those words, but I sort of feel good when I do.
GROSS: I can understand that.
CARR: Yeah, I don't, like, I think it's okay to sort of like have a superstitious belief in God and not really have thought it through. I think it's okay to just - I think there's freedom in allowing for the possibility of it. Like, I don't have a presence. I don't have some idea in my mind of a woman or a man figure or anything like that. But I find the spaces between people, whether I'm making a newspaper with them or in recovery or living with them as family or friends or - I find something really godly in that. I don't have trouble acknowledging that.
CARR: One of the things that I'm doing is praying, which seems like a really uncomfortable, unnatural activity for me. It's to whom, to what, about what. You know, I have a prayer in my wallet that I'm saying...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
CARR: ...and I feel like a complete fraud while I'm doing it. But it's the act of acknowledging that there may be something else out there. And so it isn't - I haven't really thought it through, but I think the behavior and the activity will sort of lead to something good. Anything that sort of gets me into a place of something less than self-obsession and gets me into a place of some humility, not even acknowledging a higher power, but that other people exist and they're not here as an extension of my world - I think that part of the reason I got involved in journalism is I just - I love the stories of other people. I mean, everybody's got a story to tell. It - I just - when all these layoff stories were coming, I was just thinking to myself, good Lord, what if I would have to go and get a real job? How horrible would that be? Because I don't - I do - what I do as something of a caper, not really work.
GROSS: Can I ask what the prayer that you're keeping in your pocket is?
CARR: Sure. Let me look at it. It's really full of, like, thees and thous and I think it's the prayer of St. Francis, what it would be known - programmatically, again, no names mentioned, is kind of a third-step prayer. I'm not comfortable reading the whole thing. But what it talks about is to offer yourself to God to build with you as God would see fit. And then the important part to me is to relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will. And then it goes on to say, take away my difficulties. Of course, everyone prays for that. We all do - and that victory over them will bear witness to a power greater than yourselves, and just says may I do thy will always. I don't really know who I'm talking about when I say those words, but I sort of feel good when I do.
GROSS: I can understand that.
CARR: Yeah, I don't, like, I think it's okay to sort of like have a superstitious belief in God and not really have thought it through. I think it's okay to just - I think there's freedom in allowing for the possibility of it. Like, I don't have a presence. I don't have some idea in my mind of a woman or a man figure or anything like that. But I find the spaces between people, whether I'm making a newspaper with them or in recovery or living with them as family or friends or - I find something really godly in that. I don't have trouble acknowledging that.
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