Invisible

My grandson Noah Zak has been singing and playing the guitar for several years.  He has raised over $2000 during his high school years for cancer research at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.

Noah often covers songs with a message.  One of the more poignant numbers that he has done is Invisible, by Hunter Hayes.  It’s his song of encouragement to those students who are the victims of bullying. 

“Crowded hallways are the loneliest places” begins the song.  You’re not invisible, promises the chorus. 

One of the nice things I did as a judge was to join law enforcement, social workers, domestic abuse advocates and others to visit the elementary schools in Sibley County to present bullying programs.  We would do three or four sketches, with members of our group and volunteers from the students that would show bullying acts.  Then we’d talk about what we had seen and if there were anything we could have done to stop the bullying.  Finally, we’d do the same sketch again, but this time the students would step in and show how a bad situation could have a good – or at least, a better – outcome. 

It’s just another example of practicing your moral courage.  We need to exercise that aspect of our lives just as much as we need to exercise our muscles to keep them strong. 

We need to reach out to the victims of bullying, in school, in the workplace, in life. 

And we can take some solace in the final chorus of that great song:

There's so much more to life than what you're feeling now
And someday you'll look back on all these days
And all this pain is gonna be invisible
It'll be invisible.[1]

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[1] Read the lyrics here.  Hear Hunter Hayes perform the song here.