The Incredible Invisibles

Do we call it abuse only when someone tortures us physically? When someone taunts us emotionally and mentally – we are the first to point fingers and yell “Abuse”. What about those in society who can’t raise a finger or even whisper “Abuse”. Society would not have been what it is today without them, without them laying forth the solid foundation on which we stand. Yet, we toss them aside like worthless pieces of flesh and bones once their work is done. Their work could range from signing off a house to you after the blood, sweat and toil that they put into it to playing puppet for you till you get a better puppet to play with.

We’re in the prime years of our lives. So were our grandparents and our parents at one point in time. We live amongst the midst of the constant chatter of social media and the constant buzzing of social networking sites. Most of us have our clique of friends to hang out with every other day not knowing what loneliness is like. Some of us know what loneliness is like at an early age of our lives even though we are surrounded by people. Somehow with older adults, they disappear more quickly into the sidelines and no one really cares about them cause they seem dull and drab and not as fascinating as that girl in the pretty new dress or that dapper guy around the corner. We know how to stand up for ourselves and we know what it’s like to be turned a deaf ear on. These sideliners too knew what it was like to stand up for themselves and now they don’t have the strength or the energy to do just that cause they are unable to recognize abuse and also cause they may not be believed cause short term memory loss is now synonymous with growing old.

Elder Abuse is something which has silently started creeping into society and is growing leaps and bounds. Look around you there would be at least one elderly person who is being abused. It need not be physical. It can be mentally, emotionally, financially, psychological or it may even be the sense of abandonment. We see it every day and yet we don’t stand up against it cause it’s just an inconvenience to us cause “Log Kya Kahenge?”. However, this “Time” that we could spend in turning this around is spent in bars, parties and all of those frivolous activities which waste our money, waste our time on memories we can never retrieve and that list is endless.

We can’t stand up against families who abuse their own family members but we can dedicate one hour of our time away from those pubs and parties. One hour worth of not being intoxicated, one hour worth of saving money, one hour of better and healthy living, one hour worth of aiding us to become better human beings.

Someday we could be a victim and it’s not too far away in the future.

Help in a small way or a big way cause what you sow, so shall you reap. Spread the Word or dedicate an hour with your friends at a home for the elderly.

Your one hour could make all the difference!