Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning
\nmy flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:
\n“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please
\ncome to the gate immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well\u2014one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.<\/p>\n
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just
\nlike my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,”
\nsaid the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We
\ntold her the flight was going to be late and she did this.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.
\n“Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-
\nse-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly
\nused, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled
\nentirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the
\nnext day. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is
\npicking you up? Let\u2019s call him.”<\/p>\n
We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would
\nstay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to
\nher. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just
\nfor the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while
\nin Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I
\nthought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know
\nand let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.<\/p>\n
She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee,
\nanswering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
\ncookies\u2014little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and
\nnuts\u2014from her bag\u2014and was offering them to all the women at the gate.
\nTo my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
\nsacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the
\nlovely woman from Laredo\u2014we were all covered with the same powdered
\nsugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.<\/p>\n
And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two
\nlittle girls from our flight ran around serving it and they
\nwere covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend\u2014
\nby now we were holding hands\u2014had a potted plant poking out of her bag,
\nsome medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradi-
\ntion. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.<\/p>\n
And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This
\nis the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that
\ngate\u2014once the crying of confusion stopped\u2014seemed apprehensive about
\nany other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.<\/p>\n
This can still happen anywhere.<\/p>\n
Not everything is lost.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Naomi Shihab Nye
\nMarch 12, 1952<\/p>\n
From\u00a0Honeybee<\/em>. Copyright \u00a9 2008 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Wednesday, November 23 Most years, I welcome the Wednesday before Thanksgiving by fasting from the alarm clock. \u00a0Instead of 5:40 am, I eased out of sleep at 9:20 or so. \u00a0Now it\u2019s 10:37, Detroit Bold Colombian \u00a0Espresso coffee brewed. \u00a0If … Continue reading ![\"naomi-shihab-nye\"](\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2016\/11\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNaomi Shihab Nye\u00a0reading\u00a0\u201cGate A-4″<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Naomi_Shihab_Nye<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"