Impersonal People

In the normal course of living there are many pleasantries that pass from person to person. There is also much social veneer and much perfunctory impersonal politeness.

For example, we may more or less automatically ask others how they are, often not waiting for an answer or really expecting one. Often two people in passing ask the same question at the same time, with neither one waiting for an answer from the other. This practice comes perhaps form complex living among many people under conditions of pressure and preoccupation. Such salutations, though sometimes superficial, may serve their useful purpose. But if a person really wants someone to tell his troubles to, the chances are he will have a difficult time finding an open ear among the usual run of those who ask without slowing their pace to hear the reply.

Somewhere along the way in life we must reach down deeper and discover the substance beneath the surface—for if our concern, our inquiry of others in habitually impersonal—if those we pass in public places, those who we serve in our various capacities, are to us merely impersonal people, merely population, we shall find that we have only shallow understanding of others and shall see little below the surface.

All men have their troubles, their problems, whether we know of them or not. All have their hopes and heartaches, their need of others, their feelings of frustration. All need someone to talk to, someone to counsel with. All men need understanding. And all men have some claims upon us—the claim of having a common Father, the claim of being fellow occupants of the same earth. And He who marks the sparrow’s fall—and HE who walked among men, and blessed the children and healed the sick an showed His concern for each one—surely He would expect more from al of us for all of us than some of our thoughtless and impersonal practices would suggest.