Sanderson has asked teachers to think about the books that most inspired them and volunteer to share with the school their books and why it affected them the way it did. I chose Till We Have Facesby C.S. Lewis. It is the greatest book ever written, in my humble opinion. The point of the story is the importance of seeing God. The main character, Orual, only sees the evil that is happening in her kingdom. She blames the God of the Mountain and his mother Ungit, the gods her people have worshiped for generations, for all the ills that have befallen her. She even accuses them of planting doubts and fears into her mind. She effectively becomes an atheist through the experiences. It is not till the end she realizes the truth, she has allowed her prejudices, fears and frailties cloud her judgement of the gods. Finally the veil she has worn, literally and figuratively, is stripped away and she is able to see the gods for who they really are, not influenced by her petty worldly sight. She comes to understand that she was never truly able to talk to the gods because all she ever did was accuse and disbelieve. Finally at the end she knows only the belief she lacked prevented her from seeing their face and also prevented them from seeing her’s. Till we have faces we can never truly talk to the gods.
This is a lesson that can apply to life also. We can not truly have dialogue with others of different races, cultures, and nations till we can strip away the veils of our prejudices and fear. As I talked about in a previous post about Jo Durden Smith, we tend to make people symbols, we call them stereotypes, of our hatred, fears and desires. It is easy to discard and even kill these symbols because we no longer see them as people. Smith spoke about how easy it was for prisoners, in the 70’s prison riot in California, to kill prison guards because the guards are the symbols of the system many prisoners feel have wronged them. It was easier for these symbols to be created as the guards were less and less involved, other than a supervisory capacity, in the lives of the prisoners, mainly because prisons were growing in size. In the smaller community prisons of the 17, 18 and early 1900’s the guards were responsible for the day to day activities of the prisoners. The guards were often also friends or relatives of the prisoners. The prisoners therefore had a view of their guards that was completely different than prisoners do in today’s prisons.
In the same way too often we find ourselves able to discard others because of the symbols we have created around certain cultures, races, genders, and others. We find ourselves scared to fly on a plan with people that look Muslim because people who looked Muslim perpetrated 9/11. We forget that the hijackers of 9/11 were extremists that do not represent the majority of Muslims. We find ourselves attacking people that look Hispanic because of the Hispanic illegal immigrants that are flooding the US. The question is, how many of the people we degrade are really here legally and just trying to work to make a living like everyone else. There are many other stereotypes, too many to name. Until we strip our prejudices from our eyes and minds and see all people as we see our selves, we will continue a cycle of hate and stereotypes that is unjustified.
I highly encourage you to read Till We Have Faces. It will challenge you both spiritually and socially to remove your own veils and see the world as it should truly be viewed. We are all people seeking God and trying to live together as God intended, with love, respect, and hope.