Knee Surgery and Repacking our Backpack

America needs knee replacement surgery. We are just bone on bone. Knees are important to prayer and to protest — and they seem important as a gesture too. Police taking the knee before protesters who take the knee in return? What strange images. They capture something important, even if it distracts from what needs to be done. More than mutual respect is needed. We need the mutual respect to turn into real change in different policing, different kinds of capitalism, different kinds of high schools.

We can get knee surgery! We don’t need to be scared of prayer or protest — or dropping our racism along side the road. We’ll end up saying after the operation that we just wished we had done it so much sooner. We will love our new flex and ability to bend.

First prayer, a knee activity itself.

CNN tells us that 41% of “new” people are now attending some kind of worship service. Spiritual sleuthing joins a mighty search for platforms and places to participate in finding meaning. As one pastor and elder puts it, spirituality is “finding a field and making it better.” (Thank you, Jennifer Jones Austin, for telling us your father’s wisdom.). Some newbies are just looking for a little peace of mind for themselves. Others are looking for a way to be different and to make a difference. Most are looking for both spiritual nurture and public capacity. We need both — enough peace of mind that it might spill over into people who don’t even have enough safety on the street, not to mention respect or food.