Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now - Maya Angelou [0]
of the original hardcover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.
WOULDN’T TAKE NOTHING FOR
MY JOURNEY NOW
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement
with Random House, Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Random House edition published 1993
Bantam mass market edition / November 1994
Bantam trade edition / June 1997
A portion of this work was originally published
in the December 1992 issue of Essence magazine.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993 by Maya Angelou.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-5904.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Random House, 201 East 50th Street,
New York, New York 10022.
eISBN: 978-0-307-80759-5
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
v3.1
Wisdom was created before all things, and prudent understanding from Eternity.
—BOOK OF ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
In All Ways a Woman
Passports to Understanding
The Sweetness of Charity
New Directions
Style
In the Spirit
Is Anyone Ever Too Much?
What’s So Funny?
Death and the Legacy
Getups
Living Well. Living Good.
When Virtue Becomes Redundant
Power of the Word
Further New Directions
Complaining
At Harvesttime
Sensual Encouragement
Voices of Respect
Extending the Boundaries
Brutality Is Definitely Not Acceptable
Our Boys
Jealousy
Planned Pregnancy
A Day Away
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
In All Ways a Woman
In my young years I took pride in the fact that luck was called a lady. In fact, there were so few public acknowledgments of the female presence that I felt personally honored whenever nature and large ships were referred to as feminine. But as I matured, I began to resent being considered a sister to a changeling as fickle as luck, as aloof as an ocean, and as frivolous as nature.
The phrase “A woman always has the right to change her mind” played so aptly into the negative image of the female that I made myself a victim to an unwavering decision. Even if I made an inane and stupid choice, I stuck by it rather than “be like a woman and change my mind.”
Being a woman is hard work. Not without joy and even ecstasy, but still relentless, unending work. Becoming an old female may require only being born with certain genitalia, inheriting long-living genes and the fortune not to be run over by an out-of-control truck, but to become and remain a woman command the existence and employment of genius.
The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough. She must have convinced herself, or be in the unending process of convincing herself, that she, her values, and her choices are important. In a time and world where males hold sway and control, the pressure upon women to yield their rights-of-way is tremendous. And it is under those very circumstances that the woman’s toughness must be in evidence.
She must resist considering herself a lesser version of her male counterpart. She is not a sculptress, poetess, authoress, Jewess, Negress, or even (now rare) in university parlance a rectoress. If she is the thing, then for her own sense of self and for the education of the ill-informed she must insist with rectitude in being the thing and in being called the thing.
A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer.
She will need to prize her tenderness and be able to display it at appropriate times in order to prevent toughness from gaining total authority and to avoid becoming