Goodbye, Ms. Lee

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it". To Kill a Mockingbird

Understanding each other. That was what Harper Lee devoted her work -and her life- to.  We are all human. That's it. As simple as that. Yet, still too difficult to apply...

"You’re color blind, Jean Louise,” he said. “You always have been, you always will be. The only differences you see between one human and another are differences in looks and intelligence and character and the like. You’ve never been prodded to look at people as a race, and now that race is the burning issue of the day, you’re still unable to think racially. You see only people". Go, set a watchman.

Last Friday, Harper Lee passed away. I personally cannot feel more thankful for the work she did. To Kill a Mockingbird has inspired me- and still does. Yet I am not the only one. I am pretty sure Harper Lee would never have expected the success she achieved. She deserved it, for sure. 

“Naturally, you don't sit down in 'white hot inspiration' and write with a burning flame in front of you. But since I knew I could never be happy being anything but a writer, and Mockingbird put itself together for me so accommodatingly, I kept at it because I knew it had to be my first novel, for better or for worse”. Interview with Roy Newquist, Counterpoints, 1964

Some people say fame is strongly related with luck. In the case of Harper Lee, I do not think so. Her work speaks for itself. She did not try to gain fame, but to change minds. 

Don't worry, Ms. Lee, you have.