Carrying the weight: A brief remembrance of Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

As an English major at Wake Forest University, I had the privilege of taking a poetry class from the great Maya Angelou during my senior year. Dr. Angelou opened the first class by discussing burdens and barriers. She said whenever a reader tries to encounter poetry, or anything beautiful, all of the burdens that reader has acquired throughout life form a barrier to experiencing that poem. The way to experience a poem is to acknowledge those burdens, prejudices large and small, and then simply lay them down.

I have an autographed copy of her poem “Still I Rise” hanging on my office wall. My job requires me to develop connections with people so we can encounter the challenges before them together. Like everyone else in this hyper-connected, over-scheduled world, I am constantly accumulating burdens and forgetting to lay them down. This forms barriers that make me less effective. When I see that poem on my wall, it reminds me to think about whether the things I’m carrying in my mind are tools I can put to use for my clients or burdens that are weighing me down. I don’t always know the difference, and sometimes I forget that poem is even there. But when I remember to stop and read it, I remember her words.

Travois’ motto is “you know where you want to go; let us pull some of the weight for you.” My assignment in Dr. Angelou’s class was to memorize and recite “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns. I have already forgotten every word of it. But when I find myself too certain of something, unwilling to question or unwilling to learn, I remember that those things constitute a burden. They form a barrier. All I have to do is lay that burden down. 

It’s not every day you actually get to use something you learned in college.