Every Body Is A Human Being

We often take other people for granted.  Every store you go into has clerks and cashiers.  Every restaurant has cooks and wait staff (and a line to be seated).  The roads have traffic and the sidewalks have passersby.  You may come across a hundred people a day and be completely unaware of them.

Most of the people we see are nameless, faceless bodies.  They are mere things that aid or hinder your desires.  And if you see these people in such a way, it will be true for you (perception is reality).  But the full truth is that every one of those bodies is a human being.  They have faces and names, and everything else that you have.

What are your hopes and dreams?  Who do you care about in life?  What are your interests and hobbies?  Every question you can think of can be asked of these people and can be answered by them.  They are just as real as you or me, even if you only see them for a few minutes (or a few seconds) and never again.

This concept particularly bugs me in story telling.  Aside from protagonists (and sometimes antagonists), characters are these nondescript faceless bodies.  Their only relevance is whatever small part of the story they contribute.  People passing through an area may hear a rumor or get directions from a character and keep on moving.  That person had an entire life and has more of it to live and it will never be seen or known to anyone because it's boring compared to the rest of the action.

Maybe this is a great example of life.  We cannot be omniscient.  We will choose to see and follow certain things and to ignore others.  Still, even if that is unavoidable, we can at least treat our faceless characters like the human beings they are.  Deaths matter.  So do great things.  Large positives or negatives have rippling effects.  They may not affect the protagonists, but if nothing else, they will affect the world around them.  People generally don't die or face a great upheaval to their world completely unnoticed.