Artifice and discipline

Kanjincho with Ichikawa Danjuro (1990)

The magic of kabuki theatre requires incredible artifice and discipline. I learned something of this when studying kabuki at Pomona College under Leonard Pronko in the 60s. Plays were performed in translation and I fell in love with kabuki from the first performance I witnessed as a freshman. Although I had the smallest of bit parts, I did get to participate and see what it was like behind the scenes.

Whether I look today at national politics or at the current unpleasantness in Anglicanland, there seems to be a great deal of kabuki going on--kabuki in the non-Japanese-theatre sense of elaborate shows full of arcane details.

Artifice (derived from the Latin artifex, one who makes with art/skill) implies skill; it is also the source of the word artificial. In the context of church or politics it suggests all sorts of "artificial" stuff. In other words, you get great spectacle but it is all unreal--long on smoke and mirrors and short on substance. I believe artifice is a good word and one capable of a great deal of positive connotation, but that is not the case in these contexts.

Discipline suggests that some folks know what they want, will work hard to get it, will whip their troops in shape in order to achieve it, and will not give up. Good kabuki, in any sense, requires lots of discipline.

Alas, it seems those who use fear to divide and conquer, those who strive for power and the enrichment of their friends, those who cloak themselves in righteousness and condemn all others appear to have no end of discipline. Those who would unite and build peace, who show compassion for the vulnerable and seek the good of all, who do not need to denounce others to compensate for their own insecurity may well have discipline but they are up against a mighty force.

We are, perforce, in for the long haul. May practitioners of justice, mercy, truth, and peace exhibit discipline and skillful artifice to accomplish the work God calls us to do. I am strengthened by so many tales in blogtopia (TM skippy the bush kangaroo) of folks demonstrating such perseverance, creativity, and compassion.

Let's have theatres of peace instead of theatres of war.

--the BB