Essay 41 Please Stand if You Are Able To Do So.

Essay 41
“ *PLEASE STAND IF YOU ARE ABLE TO DO SO”
The above footnote appears regularly in our Sunday Church Bulletin, demanding the action when we have hymns and psalms. The heavy burden it places on the elderly I note each week, not just from a physical point of view, but also from the stress arising from contemplation.
Suppose I decide to sit this hymn out. Am I not telegraphing to others that I am unable to stand? What then is their conclusion when the service is over, and I arise and walk away? Obviously I was able to stand, and sat just to demonstrate that I have no intention to accede to the footnote’s demand. Or perhaps my physical condition is incredibly marginal, and my ability to stand comes and goes. If so, should this fact not also be communicated? I could rise for verses one, three and five, and sit for the others. That might make a bit more sense.
But of course that would not do at all. Energy spent rising and sitting needs to be conserved.
Standing part-way up also seems not to be any solution.
It is quite a conundrum, and time spent contemplating it almost certainly detracts from the service.
If one is convinced that the printed program originator means well, are there not other footnotes that are even more useful? How about
“*Please sing if you are able to do so”? Or
“*Please pray now if you are able to do so”?
Perhaps this next thought is a good one. “*Please spend some time this week contemplating the sermon, and we are sure that you are able to do so”.
Ultimately, I believe the footnote is most valuable if I use it every day at home by substituting almost any command for “stand”. I like the verbs “work”, or “laugh” or “have mercy” or “love” or “think” or “give”—verb after verb comes to mind. And if you have bad knees and a bad back, any one of them is better than the verb “stand”.
Let’s see now. Where are we in today’s service? I have almost forgotten to sit down!