A Theology of Humankind from Hollywood, Part 3

All work, no play?
Many of us would like to learn how to dance better, whether figuratively or literally. My wife would certainly be happy if I did. Boxed in to our routines at home and at work – even if these are freely chosen and useful to others – we wish we could periodically transcend the ordinary, kick off our shoes, and join in the fun.

Such is the situation for Shohei Sugiyama, the central character in the delightful Japanese movie, Shall We Dance? (996). [Note: don’t get the more recent, but mediocre, American remake of this Japanese classic. Instead, rent the original from Netflix or stream it and settle in to enjoy the self-discovery Sugiyama makes.]

The story of the film is simple, yet elegant, a parable of a decent, hard-working middle manager in a Japanese company who discovers a new joie de vivre through dance. Sugiyama married at twenty, became a father at thirty, and is the owner of a house with a garden by the time he is forty. Dedicated to his work, he leaves early in the morning (after being shown praying alone for his breakfast) and comes home late many evenings. Sugiyama doesn’t even take time out to go drinking with his work team, as is the custom in Japan. Loving his wife and daughter, he knows that his life should be thought fulfilling. But it is not. Something is missing.

Sugiyama is depressed – depressed, that is, until he discovers ballroom dancing! If you think this far-fetched and incongruous, so too did the largely Japanese-American audience with whom we first saw the film when it was distributed in the United States fifteen years ago. They laughed uproariously through much of the movie. The opening subtitles tell us that in Japan, ballroom dancing is regarded with great suspicion and dancing before others is embarrassing. But my fellow viewers who were Japanese in ancestry didn’t need the explanation. They knew that Sugiyama’s decision to take lessons in ballroom dancing was ludicrous within that culture. And their spontaneous laughter showed it.

The splendor of dance
To take up dancing does not come easily for our hero. He feels the need to sneak up the stairs to the school. It is as if he were having an affair, though he is not. Too embarrassed to tell either his wife or his co-workers, Sugiyama nevertheless slowly learns to trust his body to the music. And the result eventually pleases all around him, his wife and daughter included, just as it will please you when you see the movie.

Sugiyama is first attracted to the dance studio when he sees a beautiful, but lonely, woman staring out its window. The mystery is alluring. The woman, Mai, is extraordinarily graceful. But as a disappointed, former dance competitor, her dancing is all too serious. It lacks grace. Her “play” is but work; it’s a job. Moreover, as she later admits, she has always done it “alone,” for herself.

As Mai becomes Sugiyama’s teacher, however, both discover that dance requires a lightness of spirit and a trust in one’s co-dancers. Mai helps Sugiyawa and his partner prepare for a dance competition, and in the process discovers in herself the dance of life again. “The splendor of dance,” she writes Sugiyama, “is when you trust and enjoy. You taught me that.”

Trust and enjoy
Many of us have been taught to “trust and obey.” There is, according to the traditional hymn, “no other way.” And there is truth in this hymn. However, Shall We Dance? portrays the other side of the same coin, something that is equally true. We must also learn to “trust and enjoy,” to enjoy life as God’s gift to us. Perhaps our society is less routinized than the Japanese. Perhaps we are less reserved and work slightly fewer hours each week. But relationships come difficult for many of us, too (particularly those of us who are male). A life of obligation and goal-setting is all too common and proves equally incomplete. We are to work; but God calls us also to play. We are to obey; God calls us also to enjoy.

To enjoy life – to trust oneself to its music – one need not take up ballroom dancing. But whether its swimming or kite flying, listening to Mozart or reading Lacunae, meditating or dancing, we become more fully human as we give ourselves not only to our work, but also to that which has no ulterior motive, to that which is done simply for fun. After all, as the title of a little book I co-wrote suggests, Life Is Not Work/Work Is Not Life (Wildcat Canyon Press, 2001).

Reflecting on a theology of play
It was Dietrich Bonheoffer who, while held during World War 2 in a Nazi prison camp and scheduled soon to be killed, wrote of the importance of play in his life. “Who…in our time can still with an easy mind cultivate music or friendship, play games and enjoy himself?,” he asked. “Certainly not the ‘ethical’ man, but only the Christian.” Those who reduce life to a task ultimately find life oppressive. But those who receive God’s gift of life joyously, can both work to improve it, as well as celebrate it in its richness. Bonhoeffer goes on to compare activities such as Sugiyama’s to the cornflower in the field of grain. It needs no other justification than its presence.

Shall we dance? The Scripture says we should. We are to work; we are also to play. We are to usher in the Kingdom; we also are to celebrate the presence of the Creator and his creation. The God-intended shape of life for the Israelites included both their work (their production) and their non-work (their play). Six days they were to work, but on the seventh they were not to do that which was intentionally productive lest they forget that all they possessed was a gift from God (Exodus 20). Later, when Moses recalled the Ten Commandments at the end of his life in a sermon to his people, he added a second reason for play’s importance. If one works all the time (whether that be one’s animals or one’s worker, or even ourselves), that person simply wears out (Deuteronomy 5). As with Sugiyama, life loses its charm. It lacks that sense of fulfillment that it should have.

In other parts of Scripture, the importance of play is again recognized. Life for the Old Testament person was largely one of subsistence work. But even for the Israelite, there was a rhythm characterized by festival, feast, dancing, and jubilee. Jesus corrected Martha not for her dedication and work, but for her inability to sit down and relax with him as did Mary.

The writer of Ecclesiastes is perplexed about much, but he knows enough about life as given by the Creator to say,

Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do [at creation when he created us and said that is “very good.”] Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking from your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain [short] life that are given to you under the sun.” (9:7-9a)

The Preacher doesn’t know what will eventuate, but he knows that God has created all humanity to both work and play. Throughout the Scripture, life is seen as having a rhythm. “Work for the night is coming.” (Jn. 9:4) If you are unwilling to work, you shouldn’t eat. (2 Thess. 3:10) But we are also meant to enjoy our play.

Unfortunately, life for many of us lacks this God-intended balance. Here was the source of Sugiyama’s depression. Harvey Cox has written on our life’s lack of balance. In our bureaucratic and industrial society, he thinks, many of us have contracted the cultural and religious equivalent of leukemia. The balance between the white and red blood cells has been lost, the white cells even cannibalizing the red ones. The result, eventually, will be death. Writing in The Seduction of the Spirit, Cox opines, “Life for me is a two-step saraband of creating and letting be, of making and simply enjoying, of molding and then being molded, of work and play, prayer and politics, telling and listening. If you reduce it to a one-step, you might just as well stop the music, because it isn't really a dance anymore” (p.51).

Next steps

What of “play” do you have in your life? How does this play relate to the rest of your life in the Kingdom of God? Talk with some Christian friends about “a theology of play.” How would one play to the glory of God? How can play enhance our relationships in the Body of Christ? What can our “Kingdom play” say to the world about life in the Kingdom? Share Robert’s essay with your friends, then use these questions to guide your discussion. Decide on an activity of play that you can do together, and use that time to glorify God and enjoy one another.

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