"Hey, Boo."

Image by wirestock on Freepik; Written by Meghna Majumdar

 If ever there were two words that made a history of prejudice and fear crumble to dust, they were these – a little girl’s acknowledgement that the monster under her bed (or down her lane) wasn’t a monster at all, just a person who helped when he could.

The moment had been so simple, so bereft of conflict, that it had swallowed me whole.

But then, isn’t that just what childhood is? Wasn’t that her talisman throughout, her ability to march Friendship into any confrontation, and turn mobsters back into neighbours?

Isn’t that what she lost in adulthood? When Scout’s world turned gray again, it turned her two Dumbledores gray, too. She had no one to turn to. But then, neither had Atticus, back when she was little.

Maybe, that was Time’s way of telling her to grow into an Atticus of herself… and take Scout with her. So that she could be mature enough to see the baby-steps of progress in a hopeless situation. And stay innocent enough to greet her perceived monsters with, “Hey, Boo.”

Maybe, that’s what we all need to be today. We who have made monsters of each other. We, on both sides of these squabbles, seeing Us as soldiers and Them as the threat. We, intent on opposing, shouting, chanting, attacking, hurting, vilifying each other from our own separate camps, across chasms of mistrust. What if we just, don’t? What if we acknowledge the fear in each other, sit down and say, “Hey, Boo”? If we could, would we turn back into neighbours?

Miss Lee, I thank you, for giving me Scout and Atticus. I thank you thousandfold, and again, and again. I need them with me today, like I never have before.

(A tribute to Harper Lee, re-published from 2016.)