Invisible.

Phenomenology is, I think, what got me interested in academics.  Phenomenology is the study of people and groups that focuses on their psychological states, cognitive dispositions, and how they see the world around them.  To put this in another way, it is a study of what world people see.  Bracketing the question of what Reality is (that is, with a 'big' R), this is essentially trying to figure out what reality people live in and what it looks like to them.  We all have differing views of what this is and as a result, genuinely different experiences of the big 'R' Reality.  We don't merely understand our experiences differently, we have different experiences; different realities are taken in.

Now, with that base laid out there (and I can guarantee both that it will likely not be the last time I write about that one and that this is actually going somewhere), I had an interesting conversation last night that got me to thinking a bit.  Baylor, like most places, has people who come in and clean the building after people leave for the night.  The lady who cleans our (the graduate students) office is a really nice lady who holds three different jobs to 'make it'.  I try to talk to her a bit whenever I see her in the hallway or when she comes into the office here to clean up.  There are a few other people in the room here that also talk with her, and last night when I got back from working out there was a note for her on the chalk board that they had left to get dinner and that she should come back later to talk.

She and I were talking about the note and she said that it was really nice of us to take the time to talk to her a bit and that it makes her feel appreciated and 'wanted'.  I told her that is how she should feel and so we got to talking a bit about how she feels working here at Baylor.  She was saying that most people here do not talk to her and most of the time pretend that she is not even there - even when in the same room as her.

Now, I am giving everyone that does not 'see' her the benefit of the doubt and am saying that they are not mean or purposely giving her the distinct impression that they are, as she put it, "better than her."  I am thinking that we genuinely live in different words from hers.  We live in a world that is distinctly removed from her life, her experiences, and more specifically, the work that she does.  So it comes down to invisibility.  She is, in a literal way, invisible.  Not seen.  Not noticed.  All three of her jobs are 'service' jobs, and I couldn't help but think that it is ironic that she is invisible to the very people that she serves.

This same idea applies to more than just people, but also to circumstances or situations in our society/world.  What do I not see that is and should not be?  This is and should be the challenge.  To both see and strive to make 'not be.'