being invisible

I cannot count how many morning commutes I’ve spent invisible, surrounded by invisible people on invisible paths to invisible destinations. KATHLEEN D'ALOIA’s "being invisible" brilliantly captures how a face becomes lost when drowned in a sea of others.

On a nearly empty train, people become more real, their faces become noticeable, they transition from another featureless body smashed up against you to a human. On a crowded train, individuality and even humanity reduce with every new body introduced into the chaos. Commuters become tides that flow in and out of subterranean snake-like tunnels in waves of determined, bleak, and consistent isolation. The cyclical nature of their shared pilgrimages reinforces their trained indifference. People increasingly merge with the commuter experience with every journey until they are inseparable. The only thing that stands out is their clothes and accouterments that distract their fellow passengers from noticing their presence.