The Knee - To 'KNOW' or not to 'know'

From a friend: "To quote my son, 'I'm a militant agnostic': 'I don't know and YOU DON'T KNOW EITHER!!'" So, to KNOW or not to know, is this the Question?

Last night's reading- art historian Carl Schuster's amazing "Patterns That Connect", isbn 0810963264, page 190-3, "Legitimation: Return to the Male Womb"-

"The word for 'knee' is used in kinship terminology thoughout many languages, including all or most Indo-European languages. . .for ideas like 'degree of kinship' or 'generation'. . .and can be traced back to the homonymy of two Indo-European roots: the nominal root *g'en for the 'knee' and the verbal root *g'en-, which seems to mean 'beget'."

"The homonymy of these roots leads to such correspondences as that between the Latin 'genu' for 'knee' and 'genus' for 'decent'. [The Greek writer] Euripideas refers to knees as 'generative members' and the knee was commonly refered to as the seat of paternity."

This last quote of Schuster's is as close in this essay as he gets to suggesting that the 'knee', 'thigh' and 'foot' are phallic euphemisms. - see my earlier blog:

(Though Schuster does later quote Hebrews 7.10 "He was yet in the loins of his FATHER when Melchisedek met him" and also mentions that "the Hebrew word for 'blessing' derives from the Hebrew word for 'knee', as in Jeremiah 1.5".)

But Schuster does continues to a very interesting observation: "The Indo-European verbal root *g'en-, meaning 'to beget' (Latin 'gigno') is used to designate exclusively the parental role of the father, not that of the mother. This has been explained in terms of what appears to be a THIRD homonymous root of *g'en-, meaning 'to know' (Latin 'gnosco')."

Then - could it be argued by 'linguisical' relationships - that the desire 'to know' and let others know you know, is 'rooted' in the phallic 'knee' - rooted in that compensation desire/construct where the need to "know" is akin to the need to run out and buy that Corvette or pickup truck or big gun.  That is, deciding 'to KNOW' something will make one feel more like a 'REAL' man - a real fundamental MAN!  A fearless and secure MAN. And conversely, those "agnostics" (even if this is a one word oxymoron) - are the "no knowing" and "weak-kneed" (anti-penis) sissy men loose on the deck - so can we have "militant agnostics"? not "hardly"!  (Sorry, too many puns!).

Did we mention "genuflect"? - "to bend the 'knee' in worship of the Divine" - Ouch!!  Unless ofcourse, it turns out that Divine is Feminine, then 'bend' the 'knee' might mean. . .hmmm?

"May the Lord add His 'Blessing' (ie His 'Knee') to the reading of His Word."