Joy is wonderful, but at the controls, she can sometimes dominate. If that’s meaningless to you, I recommend watching the film Inside Out (Pixar, U, 2015), which is delightful, funny and disarmingly insightful. It tells the story of Riley, an 11-year old who moves home and school, but the action is among the personified primary emotions and the memories of her mind. Thus, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust guide Riley through her day, configuring her motivations by day and her memories by night. The film has won plaudits from both punters and psychologists, and I certainly enjoyed it.
Joy is the leader, and always working to make Riley as happy as possible. Although she tolerates the influence of Fear, Anger and Disgust, it is Sadness she is most anxious to banish. Joy draws a circle around Sadness, keeping her out of the way, and is horrified when Sadness ‘taints’ memories with her despondency. At one point, Sadness gets control of the console, and Riley breaks down in tears. There is much in this film that is greatly commendable, but I think the interaction of Sadness and Joy offers particular insights for our understanding of biblical narratives.
First, to Sadness. The leaving-home crisis in Riley’s life is only resolved when Sadness becomes a fully functioning member of the emotional team. Children experience and can identify sadness, and we must resist the urge to make everything ‘smiley’. The Bible tells stories of real people, some of whom are very sad. The loneliness of Naomi, the depression of Jonah, the grief of Mary and Martha: all are integral to these people, and the story the Bible tells. We can flatten out and simplify details of geography, history and theology – but if we are to connect with them, we must preserve the peaks and troughs in the emotional topography of Bible stories. For children as well as adults, we must not gloss over the troubling sadness we find.
In this season of Easter, it is the emotional severity of the narrative that we must grasp at. The Holy Week timeline is important, but it is the stinging guilt of betrayal, heartbreak of death and joy of resurrection that move us. They are passions that sing to our hearts and resonate in our lives, centuries on. Just as Riley cannot live contentedly without the full emotional gamut, so too can we not encounter Jesus at Easter if we are closed to the uncomfortable parts.
Second, to Joy. Joyfulness is a deep sense of happiness and contentment, and goes beyond the shallowness of ‘enjoyment’ or ‘fun’. It is a condition that can accept sadness, even tragedy, but remains an unshaken bedrock of hope. At the end of the film, Riley finds a new joy when all her primary emotions are fully active. On Easter morning, the women and disciples were filled with an overwhelming joy – but they didn’t forget the horror of Good Friday or the loneliness of Holy Saturday. Inside Out reminds us that we can express great sadness and fear, even within the joy of new life.
At Easter, joy is wonderful, and rightly dominates the controls.
Jonathan Brooks is Children’s and Youth Worker at St Michael’s Highgate.