“Do not murder” (Ex 20:13). It is one of the ten. “Don’t stand idly by when your neighbors blood is shed “(Lit 19:16) “Do not hate your neighbor in your heart (Lev. 19:17). Actually you must “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev.18:18). “He who takes one life, it is as though he has destroyed the universe” (Sanhedrin 4:5). Whoever can prevent his household from sinning but does not, is responsible for the sins of his household; if he can prevent the people of his city from sinning and does not, he is responsible for the sins of his city; if he can stop the whole world from sinning and does not, he is held responsible for the sins of the whole world (Shabbat 54b). Pretty heavy order. Not only do I have to desist from murder and hate. I must love and it is totally possible that I will be accountable for the sins of my household, my city and the entire world.

We are only given so very few tools; our life span, the space we inhabit, the body we govern. I can walk arm in arm, work hand in hand, see eye to eye, be head over heels in love, put a foot in my mouth and then resolve it with a heart to heart. Never, never, never in all of the world of idioms, was there knee to neck.

Eight minutes and forty-six seconds, just another unit in our allotted time on earth. Sitting casually on a black man’s body, knee to neck, hand in pocket. Action, roll the cameras and with buddies standing; a life gasps and then ebbs out. Eight minutes and forty-six seconds. That’s how long it takes for me to walk to my bus stop, to throw a sandwich together and wolf it down, to make a baby, boil an egg, lie on my back on a starry night and dream, sing the blues, read a poem, rest in the savasana pose at the end of yoga practice, apologize and make amends, love my neighbor and one by one try to prevent the destruction of a universe.

Zoom yoga practice: my teacher reminds me to breathe and my eyes well up. Breathing shouldn’t be a white person’s privilege, none of those good things should be in the category of privilege- not health care, not fair housing, not education, not voting and for God’s sake, not breathing.

Back to those holy texts: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “A season for everything and a time for every experience under heaven”. But it wasn’t the time for George Floyd to die and what if the time to heal is so so far past?