“Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.” - Dr. Jack Finch to Jean Louise Finch in Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee.
I just finished reading Harper Lee’s new/old book Go Set a Watchman. I say new/old because the novel actually predated her 1960 Pulitzer-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird, but takes place about 20 years later in the life of protagonist Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and was just published last week.
In a nutshell, it is a book about shattering illusions and remaining true to one’s self.
I won’t take that any further because I really don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t read it.
Suffice it to say, it has, as its predecessor Mockingbird did, the capacity to make you reflect on life.
I was doing just that Monday night, standing on my back deck, the final passages freshly ruminating in my brain. I was basically staring off into the clouds, lost in my thoughts when I looked down and saw that my puppy, all 120 pounds of her, was sitting behind me, quietly staring at me. I didn’t even know she was there.
I actually laughed out loud. She had that happy and content look that only a dog can pull off that says to her master, “You are the most fascinating being that ever existed in the history of the universe.”
While I highly doubt dogs have much capacity for self-reflection, I imagine it is something like faith to have that devotion to and trust in a superior being. We must seem positively god-like to a domesticated canine.
What a blissful existence it must be.
It got me thinking about my kids and about the disillusionment we all go through eventually when our parents become human to us. That disillusionment is something my puppy will never know, but it is important that it happens to people, as Scout finds out in Watchman.
We must break free of our parents to become our own people.
“Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience,” Uncle Jack tells Scout.
Conscience is a double-edged sword. It allows us feel righteous and good, but can be a source of great discomfort. Nevertheless, we must live by it without letting it destroy our bliss.
For a person of conscience, at least the kind of conscience I have, the kind of conscience Scout has, one based on liberal ethics, the world can be a very disillusioning place.
I have gone through dark phases in my life because of it, but for the most part, I have always considered myself a happy person.
As a looked into that happy face of that wonderful being my puppy is, it underscored another important theme of Watchman for me, which is essentially: If you are not happy, you better get busy getting happy because it’s all we really have in this imperfect world.
