No words in literature have ever resonated more profoundly with me than the advice Atticus Finch gave his daughter, Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... Until you climb inside inside his skin and walk around in it.”
What a powerful moment it was when Scout stood on Boo Radley’s porch and recalled those wise words of compassion and tolerance. When she looked past the ill-founded notions she and everyone in town harbored about her recluse of a neighbor, she saw a genuine goodness in Boo. It surprised her.
“Atticus, he was real nice …”
“Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”
I never thought these words could mean more to me than they have all the years since I first read them. Not until President Obama called them out in his final address to the nation.
My eyes welled up with tears as I drove my son home from hockey practice. I turned up the volume and told Tyler to listen closely. I didn’t want either one of us to miss a single word.
I’ll admit, a time or two as Obama spoke, I wondered what the hell kind of jackass insult @realDonaldTrump might unleash about it in a 3 a.m. tweet.
Then I stopped and thought about what Atticus or Obama might say if I shared my harsh pre-judgement out loud.
“Come on, now, Liz … be better than that. Your next president might be a dim-witted bigot, but you’re not going to make the situation any better by fixating on that. Forget the tweets. Question his ideas, challenge his policies, get involved some way, some how. Make a difference.”
(OK, yes … Atticus and Obama each surely would've used more respectful and righteous words than I did there. I'm gonna need some time to fully channel Atticus' credo when it comes to our 45th president.)
In the years to come (not just the next four), I will read and re-read, listen and re-listen, watch and re-watch these words. They will remind me how grateful I am for Obama's inspiring and thoughtful leadership. They will challenge me to summon the grit it will take to honor ideals like these:
“Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power. We, the people, give it meaning — with our participation, and with the choices that we make and the alliances that we forge.”
“It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy. Embrace the joyous task we have been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours because, for all our outward differences, we in fact all share the same proud type, the most important office in a democracy, citizen.”
“Show up, dive in, stay at it. Sometimes you’ll win, sometimes you’ll lose. Presuming a reservoir in goodness, that can be a risk. And there will be times when the process will disappoint you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been part of this one and to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire.”
In his closing remarks, Obama said, “Yes, we can. … Yes, we did.”
Yes, we will.
We must.