Why So Sad..."Boy"?

Yesterday the Executive Assistant and I were enraged that we had to cancel a conference call less than a day before it occurred. This disrupted and inconvenienced three people we have never met's schedules just because my bosses decided that they only wanted to have one meeting today. As to not be overheard while ranting, she comes into my office to discuss the situation. Immediately, we decide how to write an e-mail that basically made it sound like one of my bosses had cancer because we felt so badly. She then, in a somewhat out of the blue move, changes the subject and looking at my wall says, "Have those always been here" (referencing the artwork in these pictures). I tell her that I think they had but I always faced my computer and never the wall so I couldn't be sure. To which she replied, "Well..they are really...depressing".

Yes. Depressing. There could not be a better word to describe these collage pieces featuring two sad little "boys" looking depressed, poor, and hungry. I put boys in quotation marks here because I cannot be sure that they are both boys, even though the one whose gender is most in question looks like the young Salim from SlumDog Millionaire. Until yesterday afternoon, I had never really spent time looking at these pictures and now, thanks to them being pointed out to me, I can't stop. I feel like I am watching one of those sad commercials about how I can save a child for a dollar a day, on repeat. But, unlike with television, I can't change the channel to make these faces stop staring at me.

I decide that the way to get over this feeling is to help someone that these kids "represent". The problem is I can't even figure out which country (or countries) the kids are supposed to live in. Their clothing and the fact that one is hugging a goat are not exactly key identifiers to place them into an impoverished nation. To make matters worse, I do not want to just assume from their outward appearance that they are some ethnicity, as I'd rather not add stereotyping to the list of things this art makes me feel guilty for. I know that if I could just place them, I could donate money to some organization working in their home countries and help them indirectly. I would then no longer feel guilty sitting in my office ignoring their sad little faces and reading about celebrity gossip or when I actually work, CHIPRA outreach.

But my deductive reasoning fails and I am instead forced to feel like behind my back (when I am looking at the computer screen that's where they are) these sad little children are staring me down. It feels like that awkward feeling when you ignore a homeless person on the street even though you definitely have money on you, but it happens over and over, and will not go away. I have always prided myself on being a very philanthropic person and these pictures are taunting that part of me. If I can't help these boys, why, then, did the artist make these pictures? And even more important, why, then, did my bosses BUY THEM and HANG THEM UP in MY office?!?!? They certainly have nothing to do with what I am researching or what the organization I work for is about. Perhaps I can then just remove them off my wall and no one will notice....or care.

Because I had been thinking about this artwork, when I got off the metro, I realized that the sad poster about child prostitution and slavery was no longer there.


It did not quite look like this one but had a similar little girl looking sadly at you, asking you for help. I used to wonder why it was in the metro, and at MY stop no less. But now that it has been removed, I start to wonder who decides to replace the stop child pornography and child slavery sign with some other images advertising a museum exhibit?? Who had the unfortunate job of concluding that metro travelers have seen enough of the sad child and it was time to make them go to a museum. I know I could never rotate the posters even if someone told me to do it because if it is not clear by now, I am a HUGE sucker for pouts and sad faces.

My weakness has gotten so bad that I can barely even leave my dog in the morning to go to work. When I start to get ready to go, he crouches under the table, shakes, and gives me sad eyes knowing that he will be put in his cage for hours while I am gone. He sometimes even hides under the bed and when I call his name he comes slowly stumbling out...looking depressed...and pulling on my heart strings. If I can't even leave a 4.5 pound dog for a day, I am not sure how I will be able to reconcile these sad "boys" staring at me all day long for the next few months.

My only hope is that I can somehow ward off the bad karma by carrying my FEED bag to work every morning....