I’m One of the Lucky Ones
Around this time a year ago, I posted a blog titled “Confessions of a Holiday Volunteer Junkie.” I asked myself what my desire to volunteer during the holidays was really about?
A sense of guilt?
Me feeling good?
Me combatting my own holiday blues?
Is this why so many of us clamor to get involved in giving and sharing at this time of year? They call us fair-weather or “festive” volunteers.
My blog was a reminder of the obvious truth, which is that hunger, homelessness and poverty aren’t just holiday issues. In the blog, I shared my concern that our collective focus on the issue of homelessness during the holidays has a dark underbelly: It contributes to their invisibility in our minds during the rest of the year.
All of this is true.
And this year, I’ve become increasingly aware of another group needing our support, and unlike the homeless, this one is sadly too often invisible year-round, even during the holidays:
I’m speaking of our elderly.
Even though I’m approaching elder age — I’ll be 69 in a few months — I’m among the fortunate. I have dear friends and family who surround me during this jolly season of festivities. As I write this, Ed and I are on a flight to Eugene, Oregon. Our children and grandchildren will be at the airport to meet us. We’ll stuff stocking. We’ll bake peppernuts. (What, you don’t know about peppernuts?!) We’ll go on a sleigh ride.
Surrounded by all of this goodness, it is with more than a little guilt that I notice the elderly around me who are not as fortunate as I — too often lonely and invisible, even when they are right in front of us. Census numbers in 2015 state that 47.8 million people in the United States are 65 and older and the number is growing rapidly.
This week and next, my blogs will reflect on this growing number of people who are too often unjustly treated as if they are invisible, and how especially cruel this is during the holiday season.
I invite you to share your thoughts about what each of us can do to shine a brighter light of visibility and caring on the elders among us.
A simple way for me to start is to shine my own light of visibility on almost everyone, almost all the time, without first deciding whether they deserve it or not. Today we were sitting on the front seat of a bus headed to an Oregon Ducks Women’s basketball game. I decided to smile at everyone as they got on. I was amazed at how many people provided warm smiles in return.