麻豆社

Good morning,

鈥淒o you ever think about dying?鈥�

It鈥檚 a question I wasn鈥檛 expecting on Sunday evening as I donned a pink dress to watch the new record-breaking Barbie movie.

The mortality question is posed by Barbie 鈥� played by Margot Robbie 鈥� and goes down like an existential angst-ridden lead balloon in the middle of a gloriously pink dance scene that takes place in Barbie Land 鈥� where, according to its strapline, 鈥榚very day is the best day ever.鈥�

Part of the film鈥檚 appeal has been its subversive narrative 鈥� playing with ideas of capitalism and feminism and patriarchy.

But the question about death is pretty jarring. A dance scene is not the time to be thinking about oblivion. But I get it. I too have occasional flashes of sadness at the awareness of human mortality. Sometimes these come at the most incongruous moments 鈥� playing with my children, doing the washing up; right now. The realisation that all the things I love 鈥� that I - will one day be gone.

In the film鈥檚 storyline this moment represents the beginning of things going wrong when a crack is opened up between the real world and the perfect life in plastic where the dolls live.

In the utopia of Barbie Land, no one has cellulite, gets old, or feels shame. No one dies. Because death is the ultimate imperfection. But these imperfections are in fact the very signifiers of what it is to be truly human.

Director Greta Gerwig has spoken of wanting the film鈥檚 plot to feel like a spiritual journey.

In the Christian tradition in which Gerwig was raised, there are parallels between Barbie Land and the perfect Garden of Eden in the creation story, where paradise is ruined because of human sin. The world becomes not as it should be and death becomes part of humanity鈥檚 story 鈥� a tragic crack in our world. But perhaps there鈥檚 hope to be found in the fracture. As Leonard Cohen sang: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a crack in everything. That鈥檚 how the light gets in.鈥�

Some say people only believe in God because they鈥檙e scared of their own mortality, that believing we鈥檒l go to heaven and escape death helps us to cope with our existential angst.

Perhaps. But Christianity for me is also about repairing the broken cracks in our world in the here and now. A belief that the cracks won鈥檛 just be smoothed over, but that everything will one day be made completely whole, by a loving God.

In the meantime, maybe we鈥檙e much more able to appreciate things 鈥� and people - that aren鈥檛 going to be with us forever. Perhaps consciousness of our own mortality can help us to try 鈥� in all circumstances 鈥� to live, like Barbie, as if every day is our best day ever.

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