Why is it Hard to Look in the Eye of a Beggar?

I saw a beggar around the corner of a street some days ago. Rarely has anybody seen them. Years of development have been frozen for those dejected by the community. Even if a curious squinting of the eyes reveal the raw and gloomy human condition to us, on its face, with gaze averted we pretend to be busy in our demanding lives. Ah, the lives of trance. It is too hard to get away from work and family to have a clear perception of anything else. Well, we can't be fully denied of such an excuse because to pretend is a human condition too, far too prevalent than penury.

I wondered what was there so repulsive in the eyes of that beggar. Upon meeting of the eyes a shearing sense of embarrassment and guilt would surface, a guilt so large that consumes the whole of sympathy for that poor creature of God and makes us walk away.

It is nothing but our insensitivity to the obvious truth of life. It is our own frailty. We all are beggars here. It is just the matter of degree which separates us from those impoverished and devastated. It is about losing the cloak of unaccounted status that we wear all the time to save us from embarrassment. It is about opening our eyes and have them meet with those deserted of happiness, pleading for first love.