Only a couple weeks ago I was singing: “I am getting sutured in the morning./ Bing-bong machines are gonna chime./I still could party/but I must be hearty./So, get me to the OR on time.”

I had my left knee replaced. Because I had the right knee replaced a decade ago, I knew it was not a walk in the park. (Did you get the humor?) Because of the weakness and the opioids, I have missed some of my self-imposed posting deadlines.

I guess a friend was trying to make me feel better by sending me an internet page indicating that things could be worse. It said that a knee replacement was only the third most painful orthopedic procedure. I don’t know how such things are measured, but two spinal procedures topped the list. Fourth and fifth were ACL repairs and a shoulder replacement. This only reminded me that I have had two ACL operations and one shoulder replaced. I don’t really desire pain, but I am apparently composed of faulty and injured joints.

Two months ago, a friend had a hip replaced, and during his recovery he said that he was told a hip replacement was a relatively easy procedure compared to a knee replacement. After I mentioned the pain rankings, he asked where hips were on the list. I did not know. I only saw the top five, but I told him it was far below the others under the heading “Almost a Vacation.” The friend was not overly amused.

A medical technician told me that she was going to have a manicure later in the afternoon. It soon came out that the next day she was flying to Miami to be with her boyfriend.  She told me that he was from New York but now worked in Florida. I asked what he did, and she replied, “He’s a personal bodyguard. . . . He works for a private family.” I decided to stop my inquiries.

During my recovery, I have listened to a lot of radio. Unfortunately, my local NPR station was having its dreaded fundraising week. I am always fascinated by the matching grants. You know, the ones that say, “If we raise $10,000 by tonight, a donor will match it.” If that amount is not timely raised, does the supposed donor really withhold the money?

It hardly lightened my mood, however, to listen to any news. There was 24/7 coverage of the Mideast conflict. That was not surprising, but I was bewildered not to hear more about or from Jared Kushner. I thought that he and his pappy-in-law had solved the Mideast. On the other hand, the Mideast has apparently made Kushner successful since the Saudis have given him $2 billion to play around with.

And then, of course, there are the shootings that seem to happen even more than Mideast violence. The new House Speaker met the news of the Lewiston massacre with the old recipe—prayers for the evil to end. I assume he believes that God is eternal, and Johnson must know that people have been uttering prayers for as long as prayers have existed. He did not address why prayers should now stop the violence when they have not before.

Of course, in the time of Jesus, apparently evil existed, but there were no mass shootings. Perhaps we should all reflect on that.

At least one of the recent shooters seems to have been mentally ill. Is someone with a mental illness “evil”?

Can you turn the other cheek as Jesus commanded and also carry a gun?