Some Things Seem Closer Than They Appear

So tweets @4484, a.k.a Rani Haddad, in a poignant yet entirely truthful message.

Take a long hard look at this picture. An adolescent sifting through garbage. A side-view mirror reflecting the scene. The words “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” What do you make of it?

Are these things – these typical displays of poverty – really truly close to us? Do we even stop to think about what the beggar child does at night? Or about the homeless people who live on scraps? And those too ill to work?

It seems we’ve all become so desensitized to the plights of many, perhaps in an effort to impugn ourselves from guilt. So really, these objects – these people who, to us, seem no better than objects – are the farthest thing from close. We’ve forgotten empathy in favor of greed, so much so that things like this don’t even bother us anymore.

So really, the mirror lies; nothing could be further from our eyes than the truth.