On Being Invisible

I know a little bit about being invisible. When I first moved to this community, I would be introduced to people for the second, third, fourth times and they would always say, “Nice to meet you.” I wanted to scream, “You have already met me” – a number of times, but I didn’t. I just lived with being invisible. If you didn’t grow up here, it was hard to fit in.

Now I am the one treating people as though they are invisible… I never meant to, but as I have been helping people enroll in the Healthy Michigan Plan (Michigan’s version of Medicaid expansion) I realize that I am asking people if they are clinic patients, when they have been patients for a long time.

I no longer know the names and faces of the patients here. In the early years, I knew them all. Most of them by name, but I at least recognized everyone.

That is no longer the case. Today we see 3-4 times as many people a week as we did in the beginning. The rational part of me knows that I cannot know each and every one of them. So my prayer is that they are seen and recognized by someone here. Please Lord – let us see them.

There is nothing more life sapping than being invisible. So, whether it is the homeless man on the corner or the clerk at the check-out counter, acknowledge them; ask about their day; somehow let them know that they are not invisible – that they too are a child of God and you see them.