There is immense value in noticing the power structures that pervade our everyday lives, relationships, yes, even transactions. Especially transactions.

And for those who prefer relationships that are not transactional, the times ahead may be both easier, and harder than for others.

Today is Maundy Thursday. But not being a Christian or being particularly well studied as the interfaith appreciator I try to be, I did not remember the foot-washing and power dynamic-busting significance of the day in history, until I read the powerful essay below.

Foot-washing nonetheless has stark and moving significance in my family.

My husband, the UK/US filmmaker John Bowey, worked in South Africa at the transition from racist autocracy and apartheid into democracy. Together with interviewer Dali Tambo - the son of ANC President Oliver Tambo in the days when Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Albert Luthuli and others were largely ‘banned’ and many South Africans did not know more than their names - John produced and directed a series of around 100 daily TV features called ‘People of the South.’

Its purpose was to introduce and humanize the people who had shaped - for better or worse - this eventful crossroads of South Africa’s history.

People of the South featured many remarkable interviews by Dali, directed and produced by John - of Mandela, the last white nationalist president F.W. de Klerk, Desmond Tutu, and several of the much-feared architects and instruments of the apartheid war machine, as the country went through its Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, chaired by Archbishop Tutu. And interviews with countless others. Fascinating, irresistible TV viewing, especially at the time.

One of these apartheid machine ‘instruments’ was Adriaan Vlok - the late former Minister and Deputy Minister of Law and Order whose organization had ordered the infiltration of organizations by askaris (police informants) and the assassinations of political activists. When Vlok, on the program, asked for a bowl of water and set about washing the feet of a mother of the ‘Mamelodi 10’ - ten activists lured to their death by an askari - John and Dali admitted they were initially very skeptical. Surely it was a cynical performance. The white racist apartheid regime did not enjoy a lot of trust among ordinary South Africans at the time.

Yet Vlok’s act of extraordinary contrition - following his private washing of the feet of the Rev. Frank Chikane, secretary-general of the South African Council of Churches whose death he had ordered - was genuine and humble, as Chikane attested until, and beyond Vlok’s death in 2023. Vlok had become a born-again Christian and had urged other perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes to come forward to apologize. Tragically, almost none did.

Global society has likely never been so divided. This is not coincidence. Division and tribalism serve those whose not-quite-invisible hands sow it through media and their own actions.

So it is worth remembering the stories told by my never-met-UW-colleague, environmental scientist, former faculty dean, Episcopal deacon, and wonderful philosopher and writer Lisa Graumlich below. She is an important and lyrical writer on very evocative, relatable, crucial issues for this crossroads of humanity. The washing of feet - a Maundy Thursday tradition - dissolves the power balance in a most profound way. Read her piece, and reflect. We can all learn from her writings.