Monoid Homomorphisms

[timelets]

Every year we go on vacation and I swim in the ocean. I'm not a good swimmer, but after a few years of struggling with the ocean I've figured out a technique that helps me synchronize breathing with strokes. I mediate. That is, I pray while I swim. Every time I exhale into the ocean I stretch out my arm and I say one word from my favorite prayer. Although I'm not a Catholic, the Prayer of St. Francis really helps me get over all my swimming problems.

Today, I was reading up on Free Monoids and I realized that my swimming is a free monoid on a set of two strokes - {left, right}. Furthermore, my breathing is a free monoid on a set of breaths - {inhale,exhale}. You see, in my mind, I can draw an arrow between each breath and each stroke and it'll become a functor between two monoids, which is called Monoid Homomorphisms. Wow!

This is not over yet. Since I can synchronize my stroke, breathing and the prayer, the prayer is also a free monoid! Here's its set:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.