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Maya Angelou: That’s it!
bell hooks: ...so that you’re not Maya Angelou trying to be this saintly person where everything has to be politically correct and nothing can be out of whack. In that sense I think of you in terms of Trungpa, the Buddhist teacher, who talked about laughter and play as central to our full humanity.
Maya Angelou:Yes, it’s central to balance. It’s central. I think that I’m always apprehensive around people who don’t laugh. I think, my god, what part of you is so tightly wound that you can’t laugh? What will happen when that spring breaks? What will happen? So, laughter.
There’s a line in the Christian bible that says a cheerful spirit is good medicine, and it’s been found that that is true physiologically—that with a cheerful spirit our glands do produce some more endorphins that go as sentinels and surgeons to help ailing parts of the body. For the mind, the spirit and the body, one must have laughter.
bell hooks: I think we’ll have just one last question, because I have struggled a lot about the times in our life when we want to pause. Here you are, Maya, you’ve given so much, you’ve been a prophet, you’re a messenger. What happens when you just want time out? Do you think that there’s a place for us to say, well, I want to take six months and be quiet?
Maya Angelou: Mmm...well, my time for that has just about passed. I might have done that in my fifties, or maybe early in my sixties, but in a few months, I’ll be celebrating my seventieth, and I feel the hot breath of time on the back of my ear, you see, so I think I’ll just keep on pressing.
bell hooks: Well, I hope to have the opportunity to celebrate this seventieth with you.
Maya Angelou: Thank you very much. I will certainly invite you.
bell hooks: Thank you. It’s been great to talk with you. It’s always wonderful. You know what they say about there being a sweet, sweet spirit in this place? You always bring a sweet, sweet spirit.
Maya Angelou: Thank you, my dear. It’s lovely. I’ve been looking forward to this, and it’s better than I hoped.
Melvin McLeod: I’m so glad that you two were able to do this. I very much appreciate it. Thank you.
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