Mother Wit

This is adapted from a scene in the novel 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' by Maya Angelou.  

MOTHER WIT

“Marguerite, I’m going to share with you some mother wit”, she said while whisking the eggs in the large old teak bowl that was always brought out on Sundays.

“Mother wit?  What is that?”

“It’s the most important thing in life: wisdom.  Marguerite, don’t be intimidated by people who put on fancy airs.  They have bits of paper, like a sterile Shorthorn dressed up in frills and bells.”  Before continuing, she looked towards me and I nodded vacantly to indicate my assent.

“People with lots of credentials, like college professors, aren’t always superior.  The wisest people can be those who can’t read or go to school.  They have something no school can give you: experience.”  She glared at me sternly as she said this, tilting her head slightly in that way I recognized.  I made myself straighter in the Windsor high back and stared back up at her evenly, feeling like I was being interrogated.  She stopped whisking, and lowered to a stage whisper: “People who can’t read can be more educated, even more intelligent, than college professors.”

“You mean like Old Man Cumbernickle.  He can fix anything, but I’ve never seen him read.”

“Yes, a bit like him.  Now, how long have the Cumbernickles been around these parts?”

“Since the War?” I shot back with hope.

“Indeed.  Since Grand Old General Lee rode through here on a white horse.”

“That reminds me, you were going to tell me about great-grandpa and the other black Confederates who fought with Lee.  I promised I would write something for a school project.”

She ignored me.  “Think back all those generations that the Cumbernickles have farmed here.  They even owned slaves at one point, the only blacks to do so that anybody can remember.”

“But owning slaves is terrible.”

“Marguerite, do you remember Mr Kent, the judge whom your father got into trouble with?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he was ignorant.  There is no excuse for ignorance, it should never be tolerated.  But remember, people who are illiterate deserve understanding.  More than understanding.  Like Cumbernickle, they bear the wisdom of generations.”