— to see work as love made visible, as mystical, as meaningful, as a copartnership with God, as a ministry, and as service to others . . . (unknown)
AngelinaMay
AngelinaMay is what Matildie calls a good-time girl, but I’m here to say that’s not all she is. Mebbe not even most of what she is. She sure has a good time, and she invites other folks to have a good time, too, no matter what they’re a’doin’. I go out in the kitchen sometimes and see her and Matildie dancin’ around whilst they’re a’peelin’ taters. And she’s real sweet to everbody, and always nice to me. I used to think she was was kinda-shallow-like, but oncet I got to know her, I learned some more stuff about her, and I don’t think that way no more.
Ain’t that always the way it is? Yer first impression a folks is a lot different from what they might really be like inside. AngelinaMay taught me that. One time I was tellin’ AutumnGlory how I thought AngelinaMay might enjoy her work more’n the other girls, and AutumnGlory, she smiled and said, she not only enjoys it, honey, she thinks of it as a service she does a body. Ya see, her grandmaw was a slave who got freed after the Big War, and she brought AngelinaMay up always tellin’ her that each moment, each breath was precious, and whatever kindness you can do folks is a’gonna be another star in your crown. So ya see, AngelinaMay sees this work as somethin’ she can do fer God.
I wish some a the folks in town could see life that way, ‘stead of always judgin’ and mostly condemnin’. But that don’t seem to bother AngelinaMay none, she just laughs that giggly laugh a hers, and later on I’ll hear her singin’ Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home, Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home. Well, I looked over Jordan, and what did I see, comin’ for to carry me home? A band of angels comin’ after me, comin’ for to carry me home. She said that song was a’written by the colored slave of a Choctaw Indian. How ’bout that, ain’t that somethin’. Her grandmaw knew him, said his name was Uncle Wallace.
So I think, nope, I know, that AngelinaMay is more than meets the eye. Ain’t we lucky to have her here.