The Hidden People

Who are the hidden people? They are all around us. But in one way or another we do not see them.

They are the elderly and impaired people in nursing homes that no one visits.

They are the mentally retarded who are boarded in schools.

They are the people in prison.

There are visible people and invisible people in our society. Visible people are the ones with their pictures in the paper and on the TV. In a more mundane sense, they are the people you see in the malls and at the restaurants. They have the money, the mobility, the psychological and financial resources to take charge of their own lives and to be involved in life.

But there are all kinds of hidden people.

There are the people who hide themselves. They are depressed or have other emotional problems. They are not able to stand the glare of being around other people. They fear rejection or harm.

There are people who are hidden in plain sight. They are the people we would rather not look at, and generally we turn out heads because we do not wish to see them--the homeless, the addicted, the streetwalkers.

How is this a psychological issue? Many of the hidden people are there because of psychological reasons--dementia, retardation, schizophrenia, and so on. This is a psychological issue, but it is also a social issue and a spiritual issue. For those of us in plain sight, we need to be become aware of the hidden people of the world.