In the Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the middle-aged lawyer Atticus Finch taught his daughter a simple trick to get along better with all kinds of folks.
"You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view," he inspired, "or, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
But the real problem is that we have to make sure we've completely shaken off our feelings and dogma before we can really climb into someone's skin. Try as we might, we just can't, most of the time.
And is that all? Not really. We can try Atticus' trick for same-sex marriage and – well, yes – many of us, I suspect, simply find it hard to feel connected.
To the teaching of Atticus we must now add a "fly on the wall" position, a position where we are a neutral observer. From there, we can look at both ourselves and others, and find out what's going on between us. That would then give us a new perspective, somewhat like Gregor's metamorphosis in the story by Franz Kafka.
I think.
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- KM Chow is a young chap who is learning to show respect for the other person's opinion.
4 comments:
This is one of my favorite book. I got the black and white version of the movie 2 months ago from Netflix and watch it with my boys. It is a classic and offer many teachable moments.
To get into someone else shoes, you need to know them. Take your example of same-sex marriage, I used to be ambivalent about this. As I know more people that are gay/lesbian, I change my mind. These are just people like us, normal, good hearted, and caring. Why shouldn't they get recognized and given the same legal rights.
In any argument, each side is right, at least from their point of view. Each side has a filtered lens when looking at the issue. They can only see through their filtered lens. The truth is, we need to help people to remove their filtered lens as well as help ourselves remove our own lens. Only then, with ignorance eradicated, the universal truth will become evident.
Thanks for bringing up this book at its 50th anniversary. It is very difficult to stand up to what is right in face of peer pressure. The book taught us courage and integrity.
To be honest, Victor and Vincent, this is the first time I read this classic novel.
We should remember how Atticus taught Jem. "They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
Atticus is my favourite hero- courage, insight, capability, kindness- the best characteristics of all wonderful human beings! I've read that book several times! It's amazing how relevant that story is and will always be - love it!
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