Over Christmas I bought a book that caused strangers to stop me in the airport to tell me how good it was, or how many of them had gotten it from Santa too. I started reading it with the mindset that I wasn't going to give in to what everyone else was going crazy for. I just knew that I wasn't going to like it.

I was wrong.

I started The Help in between crying over delayed and cancelled flights, and had it half read by the time my plane finally landed in Atlanta. I couldn't put it down. It's not a suspenseful, intense book, but it grabbed my attention and kept it. Set in Jackson, MS it chronicles the lives of black women who served as maids in the 1950s. I was captivated by the acknowledgement that my parents were alive during this time...reminded that a level of racism that seems so foreign to any thought I've had about another person was alive and well not all that long ago.

My parents aren't civil rights activists, but they're certainly not racist. Growing up in predominantly military communities, full of diverse cultures and races, I never understood racism. I remember my first day of 5th grade in a new school thinking to myself, "Where are all the black people??" I wish that I could say I've always been surrounded by people of similar thought, but of course a few redneck Stafforidians, and new people in college showed me a different side. Racism is still something I refuse to allow in my presence; it's heartbreaking to see how hateful people can be.

Today, I went with one of my students to see the film, written after the book. Oh my gosh, what an experience. I was so moved. I think I cried about 10 times. I loved it. In my opinion it was just as good at the book, and captured the characters exactly as I thought them to be in my mind. I saw it in a theater packed full of old ladies, ladies who were raising children in the south during that time.... I can't help but wonder what they thought. I can't help but wonder what cultural norms they had to overcome to see people as Christ see's us... and if it's still something they struggle with.

You should first read the book, then go see the movie. Everyone knows it's better to read a book before seeing the movie. I promise it's worth it.