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Aubrey Babala
Ms. Gardner
English H/10 Period 6
29 January 2016
Knee Strength
Be sure to land correctly, Coach Seth reminds us as we jump from one side of the cone to the other,
knees are very vulnerable. If you land wrong it could be dangerous.
"Why are we even doing this?" I murmured.
"This is a waste of time!" Shouted Samantha Schaefer.
The gross turf, half flooded field was filled with other teams practicing with a ball at each
player's feet; but in the back right corner of the field there was an undefeated team of girls called
Tsunami. All of us girls in that back right corner of me were not training for our next game but were
training for our weak knees by jumping from each side of the cone to the next, softening the landing by
bending our knees. The workout seems tedious and we all complain- well I complain. Why do we have to
be on this disgusting field? I literally see a soggy Dorito sticking to one of Megans new cleats. And why
do we have to waste our time jumping around a cone like a frog on a lilypad when we could be practicing
more important things that actually matter?
I refuse to believe that knees are weak or vulnerable. I knew my grandpas knees were strong; his
knees never failed him when he first learned to crawl or when he and his older brother would go hunting
or when he proposed to my grandmother or when he would play with his children down at their level or
when he said his prayers. Dont get me wrong, my grandpa would bruise like no other towards the end but
his knees never gave out on him. His knees never gave out on us. Knees are giving and generous they are
innocent and they are loving. They share our thoughts with God, or our proposals of love, or our playful
hugs with little ones. If knees were truly as vulnerable as Coach informed me then there is no way that
they could endure as much.
I come from a Catholic family so I've been taught that God is my friend. Every Wednesday after
school I would go to church school at Saint James, I absolutely despised it. This Grandpa figured and he
helped me to understand it, one sunny Saturday he took me to where he would write his homilies, which
was really just in his room covered in pictures of the Friedman family, and eagerly I sat on my knees,
waiting for him to read to me. My grandfather taught me how to pray or talk to God, however you would
like to word it. First while standing up and then while kneeling down, we never got that chance to discuss
the difference between the two. My grandpa would kneel so often for the Lord. Dangerous? I always
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wondered if he got sore but his knees were strong. He continued to share his faith and love with God
through his knees and through his prayers.
I try to do the same.
My grandpa fell in love. In love with a much younger woman, and just like any good love story
she fell for him too. She remained persistent and would follow him around town in her father's, Bup's, red
Corvette calling out for him saying, Jerry! Yoohoo! She would whistle at him and for the longest time
he would deny any feelings for her by burying his head in his knees and ignoring her comments. One year
later Jerry got down on one shaky knee, popped the question, and once Patricia said yes his knee became
strong and confident once more. My grandpa could never have realized that in their old age he would be
using his knees every single morning for this woman by putting the coffee cup on the third stair and then
stepping up onto the first then placing the coffee cup onto the fourth stair, he would step onto the second.
He repeated this method up all seventeen steps and his knees were tired but his love outweighed it. Fast
forward many years and Jerry and Patricia had four children, eight grandchildren, and eight
great-grandchildren. I am one of the eight grandchildren and I have met a boy who makes my knees feel
weak. Dangerous? Is this what Coach Seth was talking about? How come all of the skill Ive obtained
from training for my knees has left me when I need it most? Our knees are much like The Giving Tree
giving machines, giving more love when they feel weak, growing even stronger. My grandpa embraced
his love giving knees.
I try to do the same.
I noticed my freshman year of high school that my grandpas knees were starting to give a little
bit less than before. It was getting hard for him to kneel for the Lord and others began using their knees
for him. His knees became vulnerable and weak and when his knees could no longer give, neither could
he. Sickness took over his tired body but his lessons on how to use ones knees lived on. I now finally
understood why Seth was making us ridiculously hop around Lucchesi Field, for the sadness that gets
down on our knees and the times that we must use our own knees as someone elses. Once Grandpa had
passed, everyones knees became numb. Dangerous? Nobody had any idea how to show love for each
other or for the Lord for quite a while; sadness was the only feeling that was being given out by the knees
of our family. Between the pain of the loss that brings us down onto our knees and the tear stained blue
jeans that beg to be swapped for pajamas; our knees dont have the motivation to wake up and love the
Lord plus each other. I know Grandpa would be so disappointed.
I never saw my grandpa have to regain balance, Ive never seen him struggle with regaining the
ability to pray or to love or to play or to hug. Did he ever even lose it? Losing him caused our entire
family to fall to our knees but how do we stand like we once did? The man I took mental notes from, the
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man who showed me how to receive love, the man with the strongest knees has left me in lonely thoughts
and I do not know from where Ill learn to feel my knees again. Do I need to stupidly jump over cones
again?
I wonder how to have knees as strong as my grandpas and I worry about the weakness that lives
within my mine as well, which I know does. My curiosities and my worries lead me to the internet- more
specifically, Broadgate Spine And Joint Clinic:
The knee is probably on the most stressed joint in the human body. Therefore it is also one of the most
complex. All joints have bones, cartilage, tendons, muscles, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels to allow
its function.
The most complex? There are two ways to see it; either you're like Grandpa and your knees are strong
with relapses of weakness, which is completely normal, or you see your knees as vulnerable like Coach
Seth and you become hesitant with everything you do and even things you dont. Dangerous.