All this week, NPR’s Morning Edition has been doing a series of stories on Work-Life Balance.  It irks me every time I hear that kind of labelling.

What you do at work is your life.  And what you do for most of your life probably is your work.  There’s no separating the two.  As much as anyone in the business world tries to tell you, “Don’t take it personally,” it always is.  Don’t be fooled – your business is personal.

This was well-illustrated in the play Driving Miss Daisy, as performed by the South City Theatre.  Later made into an Oscar-winning movie with Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, the story centers on the developing relationship – starting in 1948 – between a white 72-year-old widow (Daisy) and the black driver (Hoke) hired to chauffeur her around after she can no longer drive.  Their relationship is difficult at first, but blooms over 25 years into a close friendship.

This theoretical attempt to separate “work” from “life” is a serious problem for modern America.  What would happen in this play if Hoke had already internalized the idea of a Work-Life Balance?  Well, I can imagine him going every day to Daisy’s house with a strict classification in his head that it’s just “work”.  Maybe he’d think, “This is just work – this is not my real life.  This old white woman is just my boss.  She’s not a part of my life.  We don’t socialize because I work for her.  Work has to be hard – it’s the stuff you don’t want to do.  Work is all the bad stuff; Life is all the good stuff.  And there’s a difference.  And I have to suffer whatever work can throw at me so I can get to the good stuff of life.”

What if Daisy (or her son, Boolie) had already internalized the idea of a Work-Life Balance?  There’s no way they’d become friends with these black employees.  Maybe Daisy would think, “They’re just here to work – this isn’t their real life.  I’ve got to be the boss.  They aren’t part of my life.  They don’t want to socialize with a boss.  They’re only here because they have to be here and they want to get back to life as soon as they can.  Work is all the bad stuff; Life is all the good stuff.  And there’s a difference.”

Well that’s a fairly brutal re-imagining, but that’s the way modern Americans are encouraged to think about their jobs.  Not their life, I said, their jobs.  There’s supposed to be a difference, apparently.

But this play is a complete tear-jerker (bring tissues), because both Daisy and Hoke recognize that they’re intimately involved in someone else’s life.  This isn’t New York City, where you can walk past a thousand other souls on a single block.  When you work with someone, you have a unique relationship to that person’s life.  If you make a decision that’s going to cause a person mental stress or financial hardship, it’s no defense to think: “That’s just business.”

Our avocations, callings, and professions (not just jobs) are still the best way to meet like-minded people.  Who hasn’t made a friend like that?  Or had a romance?

In much the same way, I’d find it hard to believe that theatre folks could have a “Work-Life Balance” in mind when putting together a show.  I’d like to think that Clay Boyce, Carole Armistead, Robert Hill, and Todd Ponder – the Director and his likable and skilled actors – became closer during the rehearsals and performances of Driving Miss Daisy.  Because that’s its central lesson, right?  The people you work with are the people of your life.  They’re not just there for “business” – they’re there for life.

And these are the people in your neighborhood.

Thanks to Dianne Daniels and South City Theatre for performing this excellent play.