Essay 304

The following holiday message from Maya Angelou appeared in Parade magazine…

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The greatest gifts are the blessings of the past.
Let’s Thank Those Who Came Before Us

By Maya Angelou

Published: December 25, 2005

[On the eve of this holiday season, PARADE asked the poet Maya Angelou to write about the gifts she values most. Angelou—who has prevailed over childhood hardship with extraordinary vitality, love and optimism as a writer, an actress and a teacher—has been an inspiration to millions. She recently took part in the opening ceremonies of the White House Christmas Pageant of Peace, the 82nd lighting of the national Christmas tree.]

While the carolers are tuning up their voices and last year’s Christmas bells are being dusted off so that they can chime brightly, I realize there is no time like the holidays in which to give thanks.

People live in direct relation to the heroes they have, keep and admire. If a people have no one to respect or to hold in high regard, they will find little inside themselves to glory and to honor.

In the 1930s, agreeing to disagree, my parents separated and divorced. My brother Bailey, at 5 years old, and I, at 3, were sent from Los Angeles to a hamlet in Arkansas. We had no adult companion for the 2,000-mile journey, but we did have tags on our arms, which informed anyone interested in our destination that “these children should be passed over to Mrs. Annie Henderson.”

Thanks to the good offices of Pullman car porters and dining car waiters, we actually arrived in Stamps, Ark.

Mrs. Henderson was our paternal grandmother and the daughter of a former slave. She had the only black-owned store in the village and had completed only the fourth grade in school.

With that rudimentary education, she taught herself arithmetic and some of the intricacies of English. Thus, she spoke and understood a language far removed from the plantation dialect.

She taught me and Bailey to value English. She said, “Listen to how people talk and, more important, listen to yourself. You must speak so your neighbor can hear you, understand you and maybe come to your defense in a time of trouble.”

Over the years, I have found myself needing to use my grandmother’s advice—so much that in critical moments, although she’s been dead almost 50 years, I will speak to her directly.

I am proud to have received many honorary doctorates from prestigious institutions of higher education in our country. Plaques, honors and keys to cities also have come to me, for which I am grateful. At each gift, I think of my grandmother, who had the foresight and courage to love me, to advise me and to encourage me.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, Jewish Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Islamic Ramadan, Chinese New Year and Vietnamese Tet, we have the opportunity to lift our eyes and our hands heavenward and give thanks to our Creator that we had ancestors who cared for us without knowing our names or what mad personalities we would have.

Each of us needs to realize the enormity of the debt we owe to the past, so that we can be proud of who we are in the present and can work for a better life for our children who are yet to come.

I say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to every soul in our needy world and to all those who went before.