Get Incensed

Check out this picture! This an award-winning photograph by Spencer Platt. I got it off one of my favorite sites, NPR.org.

I have to admit that when I first saw this picture, before reading the caption or story, I thought it was of a bunch of spoiled, early twenty-something girls, probably from California checking out some recent US disaster (such as the recent tornadoes), and taking pictures on their camera-phone like rich tourists. Now, that may be stereotyping or whatever, but I’m just being honest - that is the first thought that ran through my mind. This is definitely something you would see here in the United States. (Oh, you can’t say it isn’t!)

I was surprised to read that this was actually a picture of young Lebanese women driving through Beirut, to view the war damage. This photo was announced as the “Photo of the Year 2006″ by World Press Photo. It took me a second to get it really. However, now that I have paused to take in all four corners, as well as the girls in the middle, I can truly see why World Press Photo took a liking to this photograph. World Press Photo was quoted on NPR.org as commenting that the photograph “has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos.”

Well, I couldn’t have said it better myself. That is exactly what it has! It is real life; those more fortunate looking at those less fortunate through sunglasses and a camera lens. You can’t get too angered by it though; it’s what we as humans do. We are drawn to look at devastation, poverty, destruction and pain. Why are we that way?

Without hatred, pain and devastation, we can have no love, bliss and wealth. Without one, we cannot know the other. By looking at destroyed lives, we learn how valuable ours is. Love it or hate it, that’s just the way it is.