Love Affair

This image hangs in my classroom. I do not know the photographer's name, only the name of the person who gave it to me for Christmas one year. Natalie knows I'm an addict. I am completely and utterly obsessed with books. And not just any books. Good ones. Today I got my fix...

But first, I love this picture of Harper Lee with Mary Badham ~ the author of my favorite novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the young actress who played Scout in the motion picture. The story is one I reread often. With each return visit I never fail to be moved, never stop longing to befriend Boo or wishing I could sit in Calpurnia’s parlor just once (or twice, or…). I am always left awestruck by the innate goodness of Atticus and sorrowed by the injustice served to Tom Robinson. And Jean Louise…what’s not to love? I wanted to name my second child after her, to call her Scout. My insistence fell upon deaf ears, but my Ally was born a ‘Scout’ in her own right. Interesting how that happened. I suppose I won the argument after all.

As I said, today I got my fix. I was wandering through the bookstore (another habit of mine) and came upon a display of various formats of To Kill a Mockingbird. In the center was this:

Scout, Atticus & Boo

A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird

by Mary McDonagh Murphy

Could it be? Fifty years? I am excited to read the commentaries found within these pages. I suppose many of us could write our own. It is suggested that To Kill a Mockingbird is America’s national novel. You will get no dissension from me on the matter. It is a story that tugs at our heartstrings and stays with us long after the last page ends.

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Nelle Harper Lee steadfastly declines interviews, just as she has done for so many decades. In 2006, however, Oprah Winfrey was able to persuade the author to write a letter for the July issue of O Magazine, an issue which celebrated the TV magnate's love of reading. (The novelist's love of the same is highlighted in her only novel, through the characterization of Scout.) In her letter she says this, "Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cellphones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it."

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"The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking." ~Albert Einstein Maybe this is the reason I love this book so intensely, why receiving an unexpected copy of this beloved story brought happy tears...and ranks among the most cherished gifts I've ever received... It hasn't been long, but I think a return to Depression-era Maycomb is on the horizon. I can always find a few friends there, and like them, I never, never want to be accused of having a mind like an empty room.

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." ~Henry Ford