A Witness to Life

As we get closer to our church wedding in Singapore this April, I've been thinking about more than just the flowers, the guests, the songs and the food.

I happened along a quote from the movie "Shall We Dance?" (2004). This is the scene where Susan Sarandon's character, Beverly Clark, talks about why people get married.



"We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet ... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things ... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."

Watch the clip "A Witness" here.

I think all of us have this need for our lives to be noticed. For our lives to be witnessed. In my opinion, being married is just one of the many ways to fill this need. Marriage, however, means having a witness to life for life. To have a good marriage, it is important to marry the right partner. It is equally as important to be the right partner.

A week before her wedding, Tawnya Schilt (a writer for the Marshfield News Herald) wrote:

"The quote [from Shall We Dance?] mentions nothing of ownership or power over someone else. It infers a sharing, a beneficial symbiosis between two people who have found each other and want to see how their journey will unfold together. Both equally independent, but with mutual dependence and reciprocal obligation."
Source: "Marriage means having a witness for life", October 21, 2007 (quoted from a movie review at Marriage.about.com)

This movie reminds us of the importance of communicating and not allowing a marriage to fall into a rut. The original Japanese version of this movie, "Shall We Dansu" (1996), in my opinion, is even more beautiful. Roger Ebert stated in the Chicago Sun Times that "I enjoyed the Japanese version so much I invited it to my Overlooked Film Festival a few years ago, but this (American) remake offers pleasures of its own."

American or Japanese, it's a great movie to enjoy alone, with friends or with your special someone. I want to watch one version or the other or both with Chad before (renewing) our vows in April.


This is the scene where Susan Sarandon's character, Beverly Clark, talks about why people get married.




This is another one of my favourite scenes in the movie.