Dancing with God and Caesar

We most of us live in two worlds—the world as it is and the world as we would like it to be. 

The Orff Schulwerk music teacher colleagues that I know spend a considerable amount of time in the latter world, taking to heart Gandhi’s invitation to “Be the change you want to see in the world.” When the kids come in and close the door behind them, we are the gods of our own created universe where we play, sing and dance together in joy and exultation. We do the things that uplift our spirit and feed our soul.

 

 In my own case, the school building that the founding parents bought in 1969 had been a church and the room where I taught my music classes had been the chapel. That seemed fitting, as I always felt that place where I taught for 45 years as a sacred space and had the stories of all the miracles that I witnessed there to prove it. 

 

At the same time that our primary energy goes into creating, sustaining and evolving that sacred space, still we walk out of the gate each day to that other world awash in turmoil, conflict, flawed and failed human relations, as well as all the little details of this earthly life.  No matter how elevated or spiritually evolved we might feel, we still have to get the car tuned up and pay our mortgages, gas bills and taxes. How do we reconcile the different demands of these two apparently opposing worlds?

 

A couple of thousand years ago, a spiritual revolutionary named Jesus gave us wise advice:  "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's". 

 

Brilliant! In the muddled world of complex human relations, we have something called the Law (Caesar’s domain) that at its best, serves as a safety net when things go awry. When it works, it protects us from hurt and harm and holds people accountable for their actions. That act of service can provide a safe space for us to pursue our spiritual promise (sometimes called God) with the children and adults we teach. The bulk of our energy goes into creating our little piece of heaven on earth in our music classroom but it’s wise to have a good lawyer’s phone number when the hellish intrudes. 

 

In my own experience, I’ve taught in the San Francisco Orff Course for 35 years and we have, like many Orff courses, built a beautiful legacy of teachers who learned to trust their own artistry, connect profoundly with fellow teachers, experience musical and even spiritual breakthroughs and feel a part of a community that knows them, sees them, values them, loves them. Naturally, that included all the little squabbles and disagreements and misunderstandings that always are present where human beings gather. But at the end of the day, it all was swallowed up by the greater sense of joyful belonging. 

 

But in the past ten years, the chaos and confusions of the greater culture began to leak in and we had two or three severe cases of crazy accusations, psychotic breakdowns and a student threatening a lawsuit. So we invited a lawyer married to a dance/drama artist who had done some work with us to join our Board. He understands deeply our mission (my colleagues James, Sofia and I also taught his two children at The San Francisco School and both of them actually joined our Levels training as adults!) and we have appreciated greatly his help and advice. In this day and age, might we all benefit from such liaisons with lawyers? It seems to indeed be important as we negotiate our way through Caesar’s shifting demands.

 

However… While such collaboration may be essential to our work as an organization, the order of the relationship is vital to consider. We lead, they support as needed. The bulk of our energy has been and should be, training ourselves to gracefully, competently and artistically walk the tightrope of an inspired music and dance class with our children. We don’t focus on the net (other than to make sure there are no holes and it is sturdy), we don’t neglect the tightrope skills and tell the aspiring acrobat that it doesn’t matter how they walk, the net will catch them and we certainly don’t push people off the rope! We support each other, help each other, constructively critique each other. If we see one of ours doing something dangerous, we talk directly to the person to help them reconsider. 

 

We recognize that lawyers are great servants as needed but are not qualified to lead the vision forward. They are the net, not the rope or the disciplined art form. If we allow their worldview to overpower ours, we are lost. 

 

To that end, consider the following opposing worlds:

 

Lawyer —What can go wrong? Prepare for it.

 

Music Teacher — What can go right? Nurture it. 

 

Lawyer  — Hide. Don’t reveal information that could be used against you. 

 

Music Teacher— Show yourself fully. Go to the center of the circle and dance.

 

L.—Don’t talk to your opponent.

 

MT—Dance together with your opponent.

 

L.—Never apologize or admit anything.

 

MT— Apologize when you overstep. 

 

L. — Use obscure, technical jargon

 

MT —Use plain talk and poetic speech.

 

L. – Trust no one.

 

MT – Build trust.

 

L — No risk!

 

MT—Risk!

 

L. —Make money.

 

MT—Make joy. 

 

By rendering on to each what is their due and using one (the lawyer) to support (rather than lead) the other (the music teacher), we can have the best each has to offer. 

 

Food for thought.