Please do not stand for the next hymn

As I came down the escalator at the library, the man in front of me apologized when he saw that I had stopped behind him. He gently moved his cane-carrying companion over to one side, apologized again, and motioned me past. “No apology needed,” I said as I accepted the offer to pass. But the interaction stayed on my mind. 

Years ago, I might not have thought twice about it. Now, having a family member for whom movements such as standing up can be painful because of degenerative arthritis has made me more aware—perhaps nowhere more so than at church.

My eyes are more attuned to notice when a person needs a cane in one hand and a partner’s arm in the other in order to rise for a hymn or the benediction. The instruction “Please stand if you are able” may be received as a permission to sit, but that leaves some out of the practice in which others are engaging.