Joy to the World - Jennifer Baljko

I watched the movie Blood Diamond the other day, and was struck by a line that went something like this: “My heart always told me that people are inherently good. My experience suggests otherwise.” Sentiments like this spark long, circular conversations where the state of human beings are analyzed, over analyzed, ad nauseam among friends and sociology professors. Headlines flash across the screen, reminding us constantly that there seems to be very little joy in the world. I often find myself wondering what is the truth here. My own heart and experience have defined people in both ways – good or bad, depending on any given moment’s circumstance.

Take that FotoPres exhibit up the street at Caixa Forum. The winning photographer, Emilio Morenatti, offers the public a view into a very harsh reality: Women in Pakistan abused in such horrific ways by men who were supposed to love them. The acid their fathers, husbands, suitors, or other relatives threw at them has forever mutilated these women’s faces and made them social outcasts. I’m at a loss to understand how a person could even think of committing such a perverse act of violence. What the hell was he thinking? I’m at an even greater loss to understand how these women have mustered up the hope and courage that appears to light their eyes. I can only guess that hope is all they have. It’s extraordinary, really, the dichotomy. Making the point crystal clear, one woman comments in the photo’s subtitle “He may have destroyed my face, but he did not destroy my soul.”

What if she’s right? What if joy was a soul thing? People from the dawn of time have acted in extremes that boggle that mind. They accomplish extraordinary, compassionate, humanitarian feats, while simultaneously battering human dignity to a pulp. The chances of these contradictions fading are slim to none. Human nature won’t allow it. Maybe it’s about time for the soul’s nature to start taking control. I’d like to believe – and my experience wants to tell me – the soul’s choice doesn’t actual depend on a fleeting moment or a random turn of events.