Kinetic Energy
Season after Epiphany 2025
Can you feel the energy in the air where you live? I can feel it here, in my corner of North Carolina. It’s especially palpable – and visible – when driving. Over the past week or so, drivers have become more aggressive and less patient. To call this energy anxiety feels close, but imprecise. Looking at a feelings wheel, anxiety falls under the category of fear, which is accurate, and next door is anger. President 45’s second term has unleashed in many of us anxiety, especially around his policies that impact us and our loved ones, and anger, that a convicted felon could be elected President in the first place, that someone who bragged about sexually abusing women could be elected President in the first place.
There was potential energy building up, and it is transforming into kinetic energy. It is now active and moving. Kinetic energy is the energy of an object in motion. The very word “kinetic” comes from the Greek word, “kinesis,” that means “motion.” If you remember your science lessons, an object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an external force. The energy must be met by another source of energy. For example, this past week the energy that occurred when the new administration froze federal grants and aid was matched by a federal judge halting the order and then the order was rescinded. A surge of kinetic energy, acted upon by an external force, caused the energy to redirect and target something else.
Another way to look at it is to consider light, which has kinetic energy. When light meets an open space, it spreads out, like in a big room. However, where light meets a wall, it reflects around the corner and down the hall, bouncing off the walls. We are in a season of light, the season after the Epiphany. Yes, according to the tilt of the Earth’s axis, we in the northern hemisphere are only halfway through winter. Yet liturgically speaking, we are in a time of light, revelation, insight, and vision. This is not a waiting time until Lent begins. This is a time where the lectionary Gospels focus on the early days of Jesus’s public ministry, where what was potential energy turned into kinetic energy. It’s a time of learning and of active energy. It’s a busy time, which is why if you pay attention, you can feel the energy in public spaces, you can see it in the news, and you may even be able to feel it in your body. Last week felt like it lasted a year to some of us in my corner of the world and I, for one, did not sleep well.
If you’re also feeling tired, it’s because this energy is exhausting. After you use energy, you need rest. Next week we’ll explore where we get that energy. Spoiler alert: it’s not that nap you’ve been craving all day.