Mockingbird Season

Some words were adapted from a couple of my previous blogs entitled Mockingbird, Moments, and Moo and Cows Take Vermont. Set to appear in the Idaho State Journal on October 7.

Many Gate City sophomores are embarking on “To Kill A Mockingbird” this week. Ahh, memories.  Harper Lee’s novel is the only book I’ve read more than once.

I read it the first time just weeks into my own sophomore classes at this exact time of year. The story begins in the summer but quickly transitions to fall. Impressions from the novel set in the season during which I read will always be woven among the changing leaves, crisping air and marching bands of autumn. This is mockingbird season.

As I took in the leaves of the City Creek Trail this week, I pondered the rose-colored canopies, the same shade as my glasses. Harper Lee permanently painted my lens when she introduced me to the Finch family. I read about Atticus, Jem and my kindred spirit, Scout, confronting life’s cruel realities with optimism and hope at an age when both can be hard to grasp.

It’s a story of a young tomboy, Scout Finch, her older brother Jem and her widowed father Atticus, a white lawyer in the South. It imparts themes of racial tension and injustice, coming of age, challenging gender expectations, and wrestling judgment born from fear. The book touts integrity, grit, simplicity and adventure.

A poignant theme in the book is developed when Jem sits with Mrs. Dubose. There are a dozen spins here, but at the root is that Jem and Scout had no idea of Mrs. Dubose's demons associated with her morphine addiction. They didn’t realize how their company helped her to heal and slay those demons.

I’ve had many encounters with Jems.  My friends, strangers and kids I work with unwittingly distract or encourage me just by being.  I have no addictions, and "demons" is overly dramatic, but the exuberance and kindness of others repeatedly means more than they could imagine.  

Some of my favorite words from Atticus to Scout were, "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb around in his skin and walk around in it."

This is not a new adage, but I could stand to hear it often and apply it more. After Atticus took the case of a wrongly accused black man, his advice to his kids and his actions in his community made me think that everyone can have an inner Atticus Finch. Everyone can develop that kind of wisdom and character. His courage and compassion can be ours. His compass can be ours.  Everyone can speak up and defend and befriend without judgment. Everyone has the capacity for caring that Atticus Finch did, right?

In the fall of tenth grade, I began to hope so.  In this mockingbird season, I still hope so. 

My tattoo features the mockingbird from
the cover of the book I read years ago.
I mustered some killer courage this week.

And now I know I need to do this.
That's going to take just as much courage. 
And time. Maybe more time than courage. 

But first...this!

I've been considering that I need to expand on the cryptic here, but it really isn't appropriate. This week, I confronted a group of people representing an organization I so desperately want to support, but I can't. I used to support them, but today, I flat out don't because I have such deep concerns and disagreements with their operations, leadership and inability to collaborate. And I told them that. Finally. I've needed to tell them for months, but I didn't have the guts and I've felt it won't be heard. It definitely wouldn't have been heard if I didn't say it.

I've never been in a situation like I was this week and I don't want to put myself in a situation like that again. But now I know I can if I need to.

In writing this week's column, it's occurred to me that the changing season and time of year was a catalyst. Courage is in the air. [inhale. repeat.]