Due to many factors, I am stressed out and anxious. Reading the news makes me feel weird, mushed up, and alternatingly sad and angry, almost as if they are fighting for dominance.
I’m also just plain ol’ stressed out from school, starting a new job, and a trip I have planned for this weekend to visit friends in Virginia. The trip will be a blast, but I need to get ahead on schoolwork and writing work. Add to all this a new job orientation at the Nashville Symphony, all while studying for my Language and Linguistics midterm, which is looking fraught at the moment.
When I get stressed out, I become a mess. I get snappy and short with everyone around me, angry at silly things, and look at everything through a bitter, pouty lens.
I also become lazy and unmotivated, which only compounds my anxiety. In short, I become the absolute worst–to myself and those around me.
Everyone has methods for dealing with stress and anxiety. One of the best ways for me to cope is to watch something I love.
Right now, that is the 2005 Japanese film “Linda Linda Linda,” directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita. I watched it about a week ago, and every time I think back on it, it makes me smile.
The film follows the lives of four high school girls, Son, Kyoko, Kei and Nozomi, who start a band to learn how to play three songs by The Blue Hearts in a week for a show at their school. It is an easy film to get lost in, as it takes its time.
The story is incredibly sweet, and the actors imbue their characters with so much depth and heart. Rather than relying on overwrought love triangles or hyper-dramatized cliches, the film just sits in their daily lives and lets you see the beauty in the mundane of their relationship.
They joke around and goof off. They work hard to learn the songs and improve.
They practice so much they fall asleep in the school practice room. They grow closer as friends and bandmates.
By the end, when they finally make it on the stage, this little high school performance feels electrifying because you have watched these characters work hard for this simple joy. Their enthusiastic screams in the chorus of the titular song are so infectious that you will be singing along and crying simultaneously.
Part of the thrill of watching the film was the hoops I had to jump through to find it. There is a fully uploaded high-definition version on Internet Archives, but the subtitles aren’t great.
So, I had to find a subtitle website and download a PDF file. I then manually scrolled the file alongside the film. (As you can see, I really wanted to watch this movie.)
The absurd hassle made the experience all the more fun. I was utterly engrossed in the film, which made me focus even more on the characters’ physical mannerisms and facial expressions, which completely charmed me.
The real reason the film brought me so much joy was all the work I had invested in the experience. It required a lot of setting up, figuring out how to watch, and focusing more than I typically would on a movie just to understand the basic elements of dialogue.
And yet, I was thrilled by it because I devoted my full attention to something I cared about. By slowing down and fully focusing on something worth my attention, I could re-center and claim joy.
If you are in a time of stress, take a step back and find something that re-centers you. Take time and devote yourself to something you love.
Maybe it’s a 2005 Japanese film about punk rock. More than likely, it’s not. (But if it is, email me recommendations.)
In Philippians 4:8, we are told in an oft-quoted verse that “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” I think this verse applies to the joy I feel when I watch something like “Linda Linda Linda.”
It’s not “pure” and “lovely” because of its lack of vulgarity or ugliness, but because it is a work of art made with love. Anything made with that much love is God-breathed because of the passion and dedication of so many talented humans to make it possible.
I can’t help but see God in that, and that brings me joy. I hope you can find something you see the God-breathedness in that takes your breath away and restores something joyful and true this week.
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Samuel Shepley is currently a junior at the University of Belmont. He is double majoring in English and Faith and Social Justice.
