Today let’s look at invisibility for a moment. Not perceptible by vision, the population of people trapped in the cycle of homelessness, for which at this present time there is no answer are invisible. Now the issues and concerns are plainly visible. But the people and humanity of the homeless are inviable, not perceptible by vision, for there Is no vision for solutions. How can an advised woman, a teenager, a veteran, a trained chef be invisible? They are only another’s problems and have to be out of sight, complete invisibility, but are they not human as we?
Simply Invisible, I’m Right Here in Plain Sight
Oh, how I remember the days before, how they were so good, so peaceful, so normal seeming, those days before, before life turned sideways and I landed wrong and slid into poverty and onto the streets and into homelessness. The home, the car, the food, the bed, my clothes, the neighbors and even the co-workers that I did not even get along with.
But within months, not years, months, I went from that man of stability and of relationships into this man of despair that society no longer desires or chooses to see or recognize. Did I lose my humanity simply because I slid into poverty due to the situation that was unforeseen and unstoppable and because of the homelessness that resulted from it? This was not in my career path, this was not in my five-year goal plan, this was not what I expected just a year ago, but life hit me hard and I could not
recover. Here is the silly thing, I do not want pity, sympathy, I want a hand to help me back into life, that is all, period, nothing more.
See, when life is going according to the 5-year plan, many things are invisible to that one plugging along, life is just going, but then life slaps back. That is what happened, I got hurt and could not work, for months and lost everything, even though I had savings, not enough. And because of the struggles, my family walked out, even took the dog.
It seems as if the minute you are not part of the normal, accepted, established path of humanity that labels and tags are applied without knowing what the story is behind the situation.
Such as with me, I try to talk to people and all they see is a homeless man begging, panhandling, bothering them, not a human in need of the basics of life trying to find the way back into the acceptable side of society again. I am not a dead man walking, but I am as a ghost.
But I must admit at times being that ghost that I hate so much is actually a good thing. Why, how you dare to ask, these here are mean and dangerous streets. So to be invisible on the streets around certain ones is actually safety and will preserve your life. But, when it comes to connecting with those that can, not so good, that old double edge sword.
So, what is the end result, they choose not to see me, I have become invisible to society, I no longer exist as a human being! I am a number, a statistic, a problem, a situation, a thing to be handled or dealt with, but definitively no longer a human being. How as this happened, how?
We as a society stop and cry and mourn and lament over puppies, kittens, floods, hurricanes and tornados and we should, but not lost humans? For the puppies and kittens, we spend millions each year, run advertisements, and sales and all kinds of stuff to make sure one less fur balls are put to sleep.
Then the government spends its millions on all kinds of programs slated to ‘end homelessness’ but not one program is designed to bring humanity back to the inhuman nature of homelessness, how is that. How is this that we have learned to choose not to see the lost amongst us anymore? This is what does not make sense to me, I have not chosen this path, but you have chosen your path, to allow us to invisible in plain sight, and we cannot meet on these divergent paths and thus the problem cannot be solved. This is great sadness.
Will You Allow My Invisibility To Remain
OR
Or Will You Simply Put Kindness to my Invisibility
