"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Very, very sad to hear this news. I've always loved her life story ever since I read and watched the book and film adaptations of 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'. She left behind such a legacy. RIP.
And we should remember on this board that she was a singer and a dancer (she studied with Martha Graham!) and an actress before she became a writer and a poet and a sage.
She played Carla in an international touring company of Porgy and Bess in 1954. She played in London, at La Scala, in Moscow and in the Middle East. Truman Capote traveled with them and wrote about it in "The Muses Are Calling."
This is one of my favorite photographs of her, with James Baldwin:
There is a true yearning to respond to The singing River and the wise Rock. So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew The African, the Native American, the Sioux, The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik, The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher. They hear. They all hear The speaking of the Tree.
She was one of those (very few) people I just sort of assumed would always be around, to inspire us, comfort us, and make us think.
REG - I know exactly what you mean. I felt the same way. I moved to the US as a 9 year old and I recall seeing her first on these grainy PBS educational videos that our teachers would sometimes play -- videos from the early 70s. To me, it felt like she always existed, always would.
I know everyone's going gaga over Maya Angelou quotes, but this is one of my favorites. I think it applies to all human connection, but it perhaps has special meaning to creative artists:
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."