Many, many years ago I worked for the company that owns the Brown Palace Hotel here in Denver, and during that time briefly met numerous and varied celebrities, from politicians (President Clinton) to rock stars (Ozzie Ozborne, The Spice Girls) and some people only famous for being famous (Kato Kaelin). The hotel puts you through a bit of training to learn how to deal with these kinds of people; how to take complaints with grace, how to refrain from being starstruck (never, never ask for an autograph when in uniform) and resources on how to fill some of their stranger requests.
So the point I'm getting at is that I am not easily starstruck, having had exposure to celebrities in this way. With one exception, and that was the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Maya Angelou. I've always been a huge fan; love her books and her poetry, the way she has lived her life (what an interesting life she has had!), and her inner strength and her gentle beauty and confidence that shows through in the way that she carries herself. OMG she is a living legend and I can't possibly put into words how her work got me through some dark days indeed.
At any rate, she was visiting Denver on one occasion in the early 90s and she decided to take high tea in the Brown's lobby one afternoon. I had been following her visit with great interest, hoping to get a glimpse of her (I swear it's not called stalking if you work there), and I luckily was walking through the lobby at the time she was enjoying her tea. She was sitting in an armchair with a small throng of adorers surrounding her, HOLDING COURT. Everyone with her was hanging on her every word, absolutely enthralled. And she was not loud, or obnoxious, or showing cleavage (HEAVENS, NO, she's a lady!) or drunk, or anything that normally causes one to pay attention to another but WOW did she have the undivided attention of her listeners.
It's a scene I'll never forget, standing there in the lobby and being reduced to a blubbering mass of goo, thinking "durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... "
So, as I said, I have a great deal of respect for anything that leaves Ms. Angelou's pen, so when a friend of mine posted the following on Facebook earlier today, I had to jump on it and share it with you all here. It's a great day for America; the walls that have been torn down today are epic and it is my sincere hope that we can all move forward as a nation to abolish wrong and really, truly make us the greatest nation in the world.
So the point I'm getting at is that I am not easily starstruck, having had exposure to celebrities in this way. With one exception, and that was the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Maya Angelou. I've always been a huge fan; love her books and her poetry, the way she has lived her life (what an interesting life she has had!), and her inner strength and her gentle beauty and confidence that shows through in the way that she carries herself. OMG she is a living legend and I can't possibly put into words how her work got me through some dark days indeed.
At any rate, she was visiting Denver on one occasion in the early 90s and she decided to take high tea in the Brown's lobby one afternoon. I had been following her visit with great interest, hoping to get a glimpse of her (I swear it's not called stalking if you work there), and I luckily was walking through the lobby at the time she was enjoying her tea. She was sitting in an armchair with a small throng of adorers surrounding her, HOLDING COURT. Everyone with her was hanging on her every word, absolutely enthralled. And she was not loud, or obnoxious, or showing cleavage (HEAVENS, NO, she's a lady!) or drunk, or anything that normally causes one to pay attention to another but WOW did she have the undivided attention of her listeners.
It's a scene I'll never forget, standing there in the lobby and being reduced to a blubbering mass of goo, thinking "durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... durrrr its Maya Angelou.... "
So, as I said, I have a great deal of respect for anything that leaves Ms. Angelou's pen, so when a friend of mine posted the following on Facebook earlier today, I had to jump on it and share it with you all here. It's a great day for America; the walls that have been torn down today are epic and it is my sincere hope that we can all move forward as a nation to abolish wrong and really, truly make us the greatest nation in the world.
I am a poet. What I'm going to say to you now, however, is not a poem, it doesn't pretend to be. These are ruminations or reflections upon the advent of President Barack Obama.
We needed him. We the race needed him.
We the American people, we needed him. Banks, automobile companies, insurance companies needed him. The stock market in Japan and Germany, in France and Britain, in China, in New York City needed him.
And out of that great need, I believe he came. Barack Obama, Senator Barack Obama came.
Intelligent, facing forward, including everyone, excluding no-one. He came with some charm - not enough to make him seem glib. But what he did is he brought something we cannot live without, and that is hope. He brought the possibility that we might really see ourselves as we really are. A great country.
I believe in the secret part of every heart of an American is the desire to belong to a great country.
I think that President-elect Barack Obama offers us the chance to have a great president with whom we can identify.
Not as a black person, not even as a male, but really as an American citizen who will speak for the voiceless, who will not forget the poor black or the poor white, who will remember the out-of-work Asian and the dislocated Spanish-speaking person.
This is a man who I think I would like to hear speak to people in hospitals, he has intelligence and compassion. Those two elements are not always to be found in the same person.
It is said to whom much is given from them much will be expected. I believe we have been given a great president. I believe he needs us probably more than we even needed him.
I believe that each of us, each American, has got to pay back or pay it forward. I believe each of us has got to do something to help us become more of what James Baldwin called these yet-to-be United States.
I think that each of us can find a place to give some time... I think these seem to be small things but they accumulate. And I do believe that good done anywhere is good done everywhere.
I think that our new president deserves all our help. I believe we Americans, we deserve the most we can get. I believe we are a great people and I believe we will have a chance to show it.
When I see the cabinet President-elect Obama has chosen, I realise he's very serious. He really means to bring together a team who will match the mountain of work - we have men and women in that cabinet who match the mountains.
They may not be all that cunning politically but we've had quite enough of that, I think.
They may be more forthcoming, and not a minute too soon.
I know what an American is. You can say it in these three words: Yes I can.
I can be better than you imagine. And if you force me, I can be worse than you can imagine. Yes I can.
In a climate where all men and women are known to be equals, "yes I can" speaks for the brahmin in Boston and the theologian in Nashville, Tennessee. It speaks for the rabbi at the hall of tolerance in Los Angeles and it speaks for the imam in the largest mosque in the United States. It speaks for us all.
