Finding Our Humanity

On my computer, I have a file folder where I keep some of my favorite photographs. Some are in there because they are simply outstanding in their beauty, others are in there because of there uniqueness while others are there because they portray the many facets of man. It is the third reason that fascinates me the most.

None of these photographs were taken by me and, as a matter of fact, I do not know of the identity of any of the photographers and so I apologise for not giving proper credit. All I can say it that I take no credit for any of them.

Throughout the next few months, I shall be posting a few of the ones I found so very profound and will be telling you why I find them thus.

THE CARDBOARD SIGN

The focus of today's society appears to very "idolistic" in nature. We spend millions of dollars watching and following the Tom Hanks, Tom Cruises, Angelina Jolies and Elizabeth Taylors of the silver screen. We put down untold sums of money at the many basketball, football, soccer, baseball and hockey venues in order to see the Michael Jordans, the Terry Bradshaws, the David Beckhams, the Hank Aarons and the Wayne Gretzkys of our society. We pull out tons of cash for the many concerts that dot our landscape. We follow stars like they are gods in a society that often shuns who many religiously believe is the one true God. How ironic!

... But what about the unfortunate, the failures of our society, the poor, the homeless and the disabled... Who focuses on them?

What captured my interest about this photograph was not necessarily the man on crutches but the messages he was attempting to convey.

HUNGRY - How often do we forget what it feels like to be hungry and not know where our next meal will come from? Throughout the world, hundreds of millions of people go without enough food. How often do we fill our faces or throw out plates of food without even giving poverty a second thought?

PLEASE HELP - How often to we see someone in crisis, someone in pain or someone in need of basic amenities and yet we walk away pretending to not notice?

GOD BLESS YOU - How often to we just plain forget about how often we are blessed to have almost everything we not only need but also blessed with whatever we want? How often do we take this for granted while forgetting that many don't even have what they need and can only dream about what they want?

DON'T FORGET... HUG YOUR KIDS TODAY - How often do we forget the simple blessings that run around our houses and between our legs? We spend so much time with our jobs, our fun, our problems and our expenses that we forget why we have kids in the first place.

Thousand of cars fly by and many more people walk by individuals such as the gentleman in this photograph without even focusing on his troubles let alone focusing on the words scribbled on the cardboard hanging out of his mouth. We make excuses such as "we have things to do" or "we just don't have time" to justify our apathy towards the less unfortunate. We forget that this man is as important as any other human being on this planet and therefore we have a responsibility to focus of these individuals as well. Maybe if we focussed on at least what it is he is saying we would be a step ahead of the game.

Now I know that this is not as simple as I may be stating but if we all start focusing on humanity as a whole and less on the "upper crust" of humanity, history may one day view us as the humanitarians we so religiously believe we are!

... Just something to think about.