What if you were lost and no one found you?

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A colleague at work alerted me to Benjamin Kyle. Have you heard of him? I had not. Benjamin Kyle is not this man’s real name. His real name in unknown. He was found in 2004 behind a Burger King, with amnesia. He had no identification on him, and since he does not know who he is, and the government has not been able to determine who he is. He does not have a social security number and until someone hired him, he was not able to work. You will want to watch this short documentary video of what has happened to him between 2004 and today. No one has claimed him, or has sent out a missing person alert for him. Authorities have named him Benjamin Kyle. That is who he has been for the last 8 years.

Learning about him made me ask the question: “What if you were lost and no one found you?” Quite the deep and slightly depressing question. Yet, it makes you think about belonging, connections, friends, and family. What would it be like if we did not have our friends and family to check on us? To know if we were missing, or if something happened to us? I am sure there are plenty of people out there that have lost their friends and family and do not have others to check in on them. Do you know anyone like that? If so, have you checked in on them recently?

That is part of what makes Benjamin so interesting. It is an anomaly for someone to be lost, then found, and not be claimed. It is against what we feel should happen to others. It makes me grateful for the family and friends in my life. To know that I would be missed.

Portrait of Benjamin Kyle

Portrait of Benjamin Kyle

I want to leave you today with an awe-inspiring portrait of Benjamin Kyle. It was done with over 2 million ink dots. You can find a few more images of this portrait and further background details at this link on Colossal. The artist is selling 200 limited edition prints of Benjamin Kyle. “50% of all proceeds made through this limited edition will be dedicated to helping Benjaman Kyle retrieve a new SSN and to get his life back on track.”

An amazing story of a man finding his identity. Please share his story.

6 thoughts on “What if you were lost and no one found you?”

  2. Pingback: What if you were lost and no one found you? | amirulmokhtar

  3. This is truly sad, the fact that no one would even come up to say what his real name might have been. Even if he has no close friends or family left the fact that there is no one anywhere who knows who he is or is willing to step up for him is tragic. Thank you for sharing

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  4. I read this from the documentary’s site, “The US Government gave up on finding out who this man is.
    Can the internet do better?” Oh dear. Thanks for sharing about the site, something I would love to follow and be updated of his plight.

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