Wednesday, May 28, 2014

RIP, Maya Angelou

I am grateful for brave, compassionate, beautiful voices like that of Maya Angelou, who died today at the age of 86.  She has been an inspiration.

Maya Angelou reciting her poem
"On the Pulse of Morning"
at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993

A few of her profound thoughts and one simple, yet powerful, poem:

"Peace is more than, and other than, the absence of war.
Peace is the permanent presence of good will."

*******

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading,
to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs,
is good for him."

*******

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues,
because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
You can practice any virtue erratically,
but nothing consistently without courage."

*******

Human Family

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

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