The invisible person becomes visible

 Picture: Danilo Rizzuti

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me. ~ Ralph Ellison

A teenager once told me “the worst thing that can happen to me is to be ignored.” This must feel like the death penalty to ones existence; you walk around in a crowd, ‘invisible’ to others. 

One day, I saw a lady pushing a teenage girl in a wheelchair. As I glanced at the young girl, our eyes caught, she smiled; and then I smiled. In that moment she became visible to me, and I became visible to her.

It is a fundamental human desire for all of us to show others, we exist. The lady, whom I later found out, was the teen’s aunt, said to me; “thank you for making her smile.”

The aunt’s comment made me wonder, how many days pass by, where this girl feels invisible. Just one hello, a smile and an empathic gesture can bring visibility to the other person.

On the outside it appears the ‘invisible’ person may seem to blend in with the crowd, but inside, she feels the crushing blow of loneliness. I cannot not hear it, but the invisible person cries out; “I matter.”

 ‘Invisibility’ are the blinders I wear, when I refuse to see the living, breathing person in the wheel chair, or behind the restaurant counter, or who may look different than me.

But when I give that person ‘visibility;’ I give myself visibility also. Our shared humanity becomes visible. No longer is this person invisible, I see them as an individual, unique in their own way and the blinders that once made this person invisible recede away.

Living ‘visibly’ means I am consciously aware of you, as a person. And even though we may have differences, we are visible to one another.