See Something, Say Something - Remembering the Everything of “Uncle Walt”

Sep 21, 2025

Two quick “announcements” - First, this is going to be one of those “too long for email” posts - lots of pictures and a good bit of writing. So click/tap through for the whole post.

Second,

MaryAnn McKibben Dana

and I had a great conversation this past Thursday about the HBO show Station Eleven. You can watch the video of that here! We are back at it this coming Thursday at noon ET as we talk about the opening miniseries of the sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica. MaryAnn challenged me to watch Station Eleven and I challenged her to the miniseries of BSG. Battlestar is definitely a top two or three show I’ve ever watched, if not number 1. Join us!

Ok - onto Uncle Walt!

I was walking through the airport a few weeks back after helping one of our kids get moved back into college and I heard the now-familiar announcement from TSA:

If you see something, say something

I’ve heard that enough times that I don’t really even think a lot about the statement now. But it stayed with me for the last few weeks and bubbled back up once again on Friday morning. I was finishing my run before getting ready to go to an event1 to remember and honor the legacy of the great Hebrew Scripture interpreter and, I would say, modern-day-prophet, Walter Brueggmann. Rev. Dr. Brueggemann probably isn’t as widely known as he should be but his work has influenced the vast majority of pastors and theologians over the last 50+ years. Dr. Brueggemann, or “Uncle Walt,” as my friend MaryAnn refered to him, died earlier this year at the age of 92 after teaching in seminaries for over 40 years and publishing over one hundred books.

There’s no way I can reflect the fullness of what he shared but going back to Friday morning, it was his legacy that helped me to reframe that too-often-repeated statement of “If you see something, say something.” That statement, as we often hear it, is rooted in fear and suspicion. If you see the unattended bag or the person who seems suspicious, then say something to someone in authority. I don’t disagree with the intent but it is a statement that keeps us as people of suspicion and of fear and looking at others through lenses of suspicion and fear.

But what Uncle Walt did, especially through his work with the Hebrew prophets (but the whole of the Hebrew scriptures as well) was he shifted that. He saw something in the Hebrew scriptures that many others did not and he said something (lots of somethings). About the story of the Exodus, he lifted up how the Exodus is the story of all liberation movements and should be the story of faith as a whole for people. It is a story of leaving behind the enslavements and moving into liberation and freedom and possibilities. In speaking of the prophets, he helped to lift up the reality that the prophets aren’t just doomsayers but they are people seeing the injustices of the present and saying something of a new future and new possibilities. He helped to reframe the Hebrew Scriptures for people who were used to seeing those stories and words as simply ones of judgment or oppression and opening them up to new understandings.

Part of our time together on Friday honoring Uncle Walt was a “walkabout” in the Clifton area of Cincinnati, where he spent a lot of time in his retirement years especially with his two dear friends Peter Block and John McKnight. We walked in pairs to specific places in the Clifton area hearing his words and being encouraged and challenged to be people who, like the prophets Walter loved and like he did time and again, when we see things...we say things. Here’s a link to the full walkabout even if you are unable to be in Clifton yourself.

Walter Brueggemann Clifton Walkabout

But I wanted to share some moments from the walkabout that spoke deeply to me of Uncle Walt’s legacy and my (our) calling to be people who continue to see things and say things.

The beginning of our walk was uphill to one of the fountains in Clifton. It wasn’t a hard uphill but it was uphill. We were reminded of the loss that we all shared whether we knew Uncle Walt personally or only through his works. We were asked to look for something that spoke to our grief as we did the harder uphill walk. For me, it was this poster that was staped to several of the utility poles of someone who had lost their pet. And based on how weathered the signs were, it likely meant that the pet wasn’t coming home. I can only imagine the grief of a loss like that.

Our destination was a fountain at the top of the hill which, interestingly enough at the end of this first stop, was not running. There was some water in the basin but not much. We were encouraged to pour out some water from our bottles as a sign of our tears at our loss but something happened as I was doing that.

This flower is one of the places that would normally have water flowing from it but not that day. But literally as I poured out some water, a single drop of water fell from the flower making that wet spot below it. It was as if the world was crying with us at this loss. I also saw the reflection of a cross in the small amount of water that was in the basin of the fountain.

The walk continued back down the hill but on the other side of the street. We were traveling some of the same ground as before but from different perspectives. My walking partner, Adam, shared how the downhill and the different perspective spoke of the liberation that Walter spoke so often of about the Exodus. The guide linked above also includes an audio clip of Walter speaking to exactly this - of leaving behind where we have been into a wilderness of not yet into the promise of something new. Walter speaks to how we have to journey this path together. As an encouragement toward openness to something new, our walkabout audio guide said, “Something in the next 10ish minutes will surprise and delight you.” Here are a few images I saw that surprised and delighted.

I know this is just caution tape but as we walked, it spoke to me of the messiness of the journey and the way that no journey to liberation is a simple straight-line

These chalk stained glass windows graced the sidewalk in front of the Presbyterian Church in Clifton

The most significant moment for me, however, came at the second fountain at the bottom of the hill. This one was running full on.

I’ve driven by this fountain many times but I have never stopped to really look at it.

In looking deeply at it on Friday though…what I saw was her hands.

One hand is receiving. The other is sharing. One hand is turned upwards to receive whatever may come and the other is turned downward offering the same. Water flows into the palm of one and from the palm of the other. This, to me, is the essence of the work of Walter Brueggemann but more so the essence of what I have come to understand of the heart of God’s call for us. We are to receive this outpouring of love from God but it has to be equally offered to others. But it doesn’t just happen. It takes us doing the work. It takes us, to use Walter’s words again, “walking together.” Notice how the sharing hand in the fountain is upraised - it is the hand that is doing the work, it is lifting up and exterting. It is not passive but active.

I believe we are called to not only see the things of this world but to act upon this world. See something and say (do) something. Right now, it feels like the levels of injustice and ugly in our world are growing - just this week we saw another political assassination, another school shooting, we heard national lawmakers advocating locking up transgender individuals, the devastation in Gaza and Ukraine continues, the wealth gap continues to widen, and the list goes on. We can simply watch all of this take place or we can speak out and do the work of creating something new. We can choose to not accept the way things are and instead walk imaginatively into something different.

That is the legacy of Walter Brueggemann. While he is physically gone, his legacy is still here and his words and wisdom continue to speak (If you’re not a reader, there are plenty of youtube videos of him speaking and sharing - take some time with them - please - here’s one to start).2