A Severed Spiritual Life

“We are people, not parts of people.” Mark S.

The second season of Severance – the Apple TV series – is finally available after a three year wait post- Season One. The premise is that the fictional Lumon Industries has developed a surgical procedure that severs a human being’s personal/home life from their professional/work life. Every day “severed employees” leave their homes (they are called “Outies” – like the belly button) and drive to work where they enter an elevator taking them to their offices. During the elevator ride, they become their severed “Innies” – or Lumon workers who have no recollection of their home/personal lives.

Reasons why people would subject themselves to this:

• Focus. When you are home, you can focus 100% on your family or your laundry without concerns about work deadlines, colleague conflicts, or job dissatisfaction. When you are at work, you can focus on your assigned task without concerns about your child’s ear infection or the leak in your condo. This seems good?
• Avoidance. One character (Mark) became a young widower in his personal life and he sought out the severance procedure because his grief was unbearable. He lost his job as a professor because his personal agony was impacting his professional life. As a Severed Person, at least he could be productive from 9 to 5. This seems understandable?
• Coolness. How cool to be a part of an up and coming technology? Early adopter heaven?

In theology – Christian and all the other theologies – this severance looks like dualism gone awry. For most Christians, we believe that a person is both body and soul and those two parts are inseparable until death – when the body dies but the spirit lives on. And the resurrection of the body happens later.

But for the Severed Employees of Lumon, their bodies and souls have not separated. At work, their bodies sit at desks and spend tedious hours doing “microdata refinement.” Occasionally they are rewarded with random perks like melon bars and waffle parties. Sometimes they are sent to the break room which is more about punishment than coffee. It’s soul-sucking every day. Melons don’t particularly fill one’s soul.

At home, their bodies return to book groups and dinner parties and their souls experience all the usual things: sometimes uplifted, sometimes broken, sometimes longing, sometimes, joyful.

I’m most fascinated by the theological insights sparked by Severance. My takeaways from the first episode of Season 2:

• Authentic Truth is elusive. Is Lumon creating a glorious future as they tell the world? Or is the truth that they are evil manipulators?
• The world offers ridiculous rewards. Please do not give me a plaque when I retire. I recently went to a retirement party where the honoree received 12 plaques/trophies and while they were all presented by the various church committees and organizations with authentic love, I’m guessing the retiree would have appreciated something more useful like a gift card to his favorite restaurant or a trip to Disney World. I know someone who was given 12 place settings of china from the church kitchen with a drawing of the building on every plate and teacup. It looked like someone had cleaned out the pantry and thought, “I bet the pastor would love to look at the sanctuary while eating their cereal.” It feels like a melon bar. People get watches for their service – which is a lovely gesture. And it’s an easy gift that takes little thought. I’m guessing most people would have appreciated the cost of the watch in a love gift. Worst employee gift ever? I once worked on a staff that all received cross statues to put on our desks. The Personnel Committee didn’t realize that two of the staff members were Jewish. Merry Christmas. Best gifts? A thoughtful letter.
• Work should never feel like torture. One of the severed people – in a moment of freedom in the Outie World- yelled, “They torture us down there!” In our chosen profession/calling/vocation/job there are moments we might dread, but it’s so meaningful to feel like we are making a difference. I know a woman who cleans homes for a living and she loves creating order for her clients. It is creative work for her. Sometimes people tell me they could “never do my job” and the truth is that – for all the challenging moments – I get to see the hand of God in people’s lives every day. It fills me with delight.

We live in a world where too many lies are told, where rewards do not make us feel truly valued or known, where daily drudgery surpasses daily joy. I believe this happens when we live a severed spiritual life.

When we seek what is true about ourselves, when we recognize that we are ineffably valuable simply because we were each created in God’s Image, when we realize that all work – from doing laundry to negotiating world peace – is ministry – then our lives are spiritually whole.

And this is also true when we see these the truth, the value, and the contributions of others.

This is my goal and my stronghold for life.