I don’t like to get philosophical or depressing during the holiday season, but right now there are people who will spend the next two three-day weekends in exile, alone and ignored. We tend to think that some people deserve isolation for a particular reason or none at all. That is not how to repair what is broken.
On the contrary, we need to devote more attention to them, not less.
But we are a throwaway world. The minute a food wrapper no longer holds its cargo, we drop it just anywhere, often when a trash receptacle is nearby. We drop our electronics and furniture by the side of the road to be picked up and taken who knows where. Culturally we also put people aside. We beat them, we bully them, we shout evil words at them and try to pretend they do not exist. But they do.
Often we are scared of such people. Fear lies at the root of everything we reject. We beat them and shout evil words like ammunition to prevent their intrusion, and we pretend they don’t exist in hopes of them disappearing. They still remain.
Ignored people, like things, don’t just go away. They are always here somewhere. They need attention. The victim of abuse and their perpetrator need to talk and work out the problems that lead to their encounter. All the abuse victims deserve compassion and a voice and justice, but also their abusers have issues which need addressing. Celebrities like Louis CK have come out and said that, yes, abuse happened, and they did it. It helps to know the mindset, the background and the back story, leading to a decision to do something that deviant. Instead of throwing away what we fear, we need to face it and examine it and restore balance.
Nobody should be alone. We can’t ignore ourselves.
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