not a number

With it being election season, I think this is even more pertinent than other times- and I think this is one of the most important things there is every day.  But right now, when statistics and research findings and strategic plans and solutions to "pressing issues" are being sought... we are all in danger of being identified as numbers.  I am part of the __% that does this, or the __% that doesn't want that, or the __% that believes in this, or the __% that lives here.......  I am a number in a myriad of equations.

And if I'm not careful, I can buy into this idea that I AM a number- not a person, not a life, not a creation of God- but a number.  Because, hey, my vote counts.  Not my life, but my vote.

And the other scary thing is that, if I'm not careful, I can buy into this idea that you ARE a number.  Sometimes our numbers add together, sometimes they cancel each other out, sometimes one squashes the other...

I've gone to a few events recently, and read many articles and watched some videos that have conveyed to me what the "numbers are."  And the sources usually have the audacity to say, "and this is WHO these numbers are/represent."  And I rarely match the description of my number... which leaves me feeling lost and alone and marginalized and wondering how many other "numbers"- a.k.a. people- also feel this way.

This might sound cheesy and stupid, but I don't really hear or see it being acknowledged hardly anywhere, so I think it needs to be said...  You ARE NOT a number.  I AM NOT a number.  And we need to fight to remember that about ourselves and about each other.

My mom volunteers at a Crisis Nursery, and she was telling me today about how the kids just eat up the individual attention they get when they are there.  So we were talking about how that is such an innate fundamental need that all kids are born with.  And then I had one of those lightbulb moments, and I realized that we still desperately need that as adults.  We all want someone to acknowledge our life- not for what we have to offer, or what we cost, or if we accomplished something, or if we messed up, or whatever else.  Just US.  We want someone to say to us, "I see you.  I acknowledge that you are a human being that is alive.  And I think it's pretty awesome that you exist."  I dare you to go up to 5 people and say that.  I guarantee they will think you are really weird, but I'm also willing to bet that you are going to make their day.  I have a hunch that I'm not the only person that would like to be seen as an actual person living life, not a number.