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Sustainable Human
Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. Help, said the flight agent. Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.
I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.
Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said, No, were fine, youll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Lets call him.
We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would
stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to
her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just
for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.
She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee,
answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
cookies little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts from her bag and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.
And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend by now we were holding hands had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate once the crying of confusion stopped seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.
This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.
~ Naomi Shihab Nye
niyad
(120,663 posts)Humanity.
Blue Owl
(54,915 posts)cilla4progress
(25,979 posts)Thank you.
yonder
(10,008 posts)Enter stage left
(3,850 posts)If we can only get rid of the ignorant fools.
LeftInTX
(30,594 posts)twin_ghost
(435 posts)Grumpy Old Guy
(3,605 posts)people
(710 posts)Thanks for posting this.
patphil
(7,111 posts)littlemissmartypants
(25,896 posts)Demsrule86
(71,033 posts)ms liberty
(9,879 posts)Wild blueberry
(7,271 posts)FakeNoose
(36,003 posts)It's always awesome to share our culture with others. And super-awesome to learn about other cultures when people want to share theirs with us.
Fla Dem
(25,870 posts)If Only. Beautiful story. Thanks. Lifted my spirits.
dixiechiken1
(2,113 posts)Nice to know humanity still exists, albeit rarely these days.
3catwoman3
(25,664 posts)...I want to live in. It's the one I thought I lived in.
pazzyanne
(6,618 posts)An America where people have compassion and caring for others.
NBachers
(18,195 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Thank you for sharing that. Sharing elsewhere.
GeoWilliam750
(2,547 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)My son is studying Modern Standard Arabic.
This is truly a wonderful story.
malaise
(278,776 posts)Thank you
Rec
Uncle Joe
(60,265 posts)Thanks for the thread Quixote
mountain grammy
(27,378 posts)Enjoyed reading this.
BadGimp
(4,066 posts)My soul needed that.