…tonight my heart breaks

It’s really amazing the power that movies have over us. I’m not talking about the power a romantic comedy has to make you feel like those crazy love stories actually come true. I’m not talking about the super-hero movies where you feel like you are faster than a speeding bullet.

What I’m talking about tonight are those movies that knock you straight out of everything you thought you previously understood. I’m talking about those movies that strip away all the BS you’ve been surrounded with for so long.

Now, I’m not an idiot, I fully understand that lots (if not most) people in entertainment, heck in any business, have some sort of agenda. So I fully realize that some of these amazing stories we watch through our DVD players may have a little “extra” thrown in for monetary gain.

Tonight I watched “Blood Diamond.” I, uhm… really don’t know what to say. The basic plot is that in 1999, an arms dealer by the name of Danny Archer (played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who by the way I don’t care what anyone may say about me, I think is a completely underrated actor), sells arms to the rebel army of Sierra Leone, in exchange for payments made in diamonds that have been mined in the cruelest of ways. If you’re not familiar with blood diamonds, just click here for a wikipedia entry. The quick rundown is that over the course of the movie, Archer comes to realize that his cynical world-view of “this is just the way it is” is no longer working for him. Through meeting a few choice people over the course of the film, Archer realizes it’s time to do the right thing.

Here’s the thing… I can’t, for the life of me understand why people would still want diamonds. There is a lot of truth in what this movie presented, the fact that there is still conflict diamonds being sold on the market. The fact that Sierra Leone is ranked the world’s poorest country by the United Nations, while producing billions of dollars worth of diamonds. The fact that 300,000 carats of diamonds annually are being mined with slave labor in the rebel-held regions in the Ivory Coast and sold to fund violent conflicts. The fact that the vast majority of the worlds supply of diamonds is controlled by one company (De Beers) and can pretty much set whatever price they want.

All of this… leads me to ask, why in God’s green earth have we placed so much value on a stupid piece of clear rock (which by the way, looks exactly like a two dollar cubic zirconia) that causes so much bloodshed and slavery?

Ryanne, I’m sorry… I’m never buying you a diamond again.

Anyway, this has been a very interesting week for me. “Mere Christianity,” “Fast Food Nation,” and now “Blood Diamond.” I don’t know if it’s coincidence, or if God is throwing everything he can at me right now to try and get my attention. I feel like this week I’ve been utterly dismantled. I mean it, I feel like I am being deconstructed, only to be put back together again in a new and better way.

My mom said tonight at dinner that Ryanne was going to get back from vacation and not recognize me. I pray that comes true.

I’ll end this post with a great quote from the movie:

“A moment of love, even in a bad man, can give meaning to a life. None of us knows whose path will lead us to God.”

*note — stats in this post comes from here