Words are powerful. They shape our relationships, influence how we see ourselves, and impact how we experience the world. In this episode of The Echoes Podcast, poet and educator Olga Samples Davis shares her reflections on the significance of words—whether spoken in kindness, passed down through generations, or rooted in faith. Olga reflects on her mother’s wisdom, her journey as an educator, and her faith in the transformative power of language. Because, Olga says, kindness transcends barriers.
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Things My Mama Told Me
00;00;00;00 – 00;00;23;26
Marcus Goodyear
Words matter. The words we say to others impact our relationships. For better or worse. The words we tell ourselves affect our sense of self, even shape how we perceive the world. Therapists help couples use better words with each other and they help individuals discover healthier forms of self-talk. You know, words are even an attribute of the divine.
00;00;23;29 – 00;00;48;01
Marcus Goodyear
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Last year, in the second community survey from the Egbert Foundation, we asked subscribers of echoes magazine a series of questions about their community, including this one. What words do you live by? And we weren’t just asking for your favorite song lyrics or dad wisdom that we hoped you would share.
00;00;48;01 – 00;01;09;02
Marcus Goodyear
How you connect with God, how you see God working in the world. And you didn’t disappoint us. Almost everyone answered that question. 82% of you, actually. Now, most of you cited the Bible, which is a good reminder. How many of you believe all Scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching? But a lot of you cited other religious texts and you shared poetry and music and literature.
00;01;09;05 – 00;01;39;17
Marcus Goodyear
There’s so many different perspectives and beliefs in our audience. It’s like we say at Laity Lodge, we have an agenda, but we don’t have an agenda for you. In fact, when we set agendas aside, we can build the beautiful world together, no matter where your words come from. You focused on the same themes love and service, and the overwhelming majority of you are living by positive and uplifting words like hope and peace, joy, faith, family, kindness, gratitude, strength.
00;01;39;19 – 00;02;02;18
Marcus Goodyear
And I’ll be honest, this really encouraged me. When I open social media or read the news, it can feel like we are just all negativity and fear and hatred. I mean, hatred is loud, but at least in our audience there actually isn’t very much of it. It just seems that way. Yeah, most people want to live by quiet, hopeful words of love.
00;02;02;20 – 00;02;10;15
Marcus Goodyear
What would the world be like if we shared more words of love and hope?
00;02;10;17 – 00;02;32;00
Marcus Goodyear
I’m Marcus Goodyear from the H. E. Butt Foundation, and you’re listening to the Echo’s podcast. On today’s episode, we welcome our guest, Olga Samples Davis. Olga is an educator, retired from Saint Philip’s College in San Antonio and a poet. I’m here with my co-host, Camille Hall Ortega. Today we’re going to talk about the words We live by. Olga, friend, welcome to The Echoes podcast.
00;02;32;02 – 00;02;55;14
Camille Hall Ortega
Yes, welcome.
Olga Samples Davis
Thank you.
Marcus Goodyear
Yes. We’ve been talking about, words to live by, and we asked our audience about words to live by. And I’m just curious, why do you think it’s important? Or do you think it’s important to have words to live by?
Olga Samples Davis
I certainly do think it’s important. Of course, I agree with many of these wise people in the survey.
00;02;55;25 – 00;03;30;27
Olga Samples Davis
We start with the Bible, or we somehow include the Bible, and we look for these compasses to guide us in life. We’re all broken. I love when he made me sad about that. He said we’re just all broken. But that’s how the light comes in. Yeah. And I always think about that. And the words have come in my life from not just the Bible, which was the teachings and our mom, but all those teachers.
00;03;30;27 – 00;04;02;03
Olga Samples Davis
Every day, teachers in our lives and neighborhood mamas. The people at the church. Strangers. Even be careful. Child learning was something you had to be cognizant of every minute of your life, and everyone had something to teach. You just had to pay attention.
Marcus Goodyear
That’s great Olga. I love hearing that you shared that the Bible is where you start and then you shared some Hemingway.
00;04;02;04 – 00;04;23;05
Marcus Goodyear
Are there other specific words you live by or.
Olga Samples Davis
I yeah, I have my prayers and meditations. John Wesley do all the good you can by all the means you can and all the ways you can, and all the places you can add all the time and care to all the people you can as long as ever you can.
00;04;23;10 – 00;05;05;14
Olga Samples Davis
To me, that’s a prayer. You know, that’s that’s a compass. And those compass moments always came in words. Be it poetry, a Bible verse, or some mother or father or even child unknown person giving you a message and you could only receive it if you paid attention. But nevertheless, the message was out there was so good.
Camille Hall Ortega
Although we gave a little brief intro of you, but I’m curious about some of your background.
00;05;05;14 – 00;05;50;10
Camille Hall Ortega
I’d love to know who instilled in you a love for literature and for poetry. I’d love to know sort of where the roots of that are for you.
Olga Samples Davis
There were many. There were many. My mother more most importantly. But she came from a long line of preachers and teachers, a time when, a very difficult time, because my, her father was a minister ordained so the only valuable thing that they owned as a family, the house to make it possible for him to go to seminary and for my grandmother to go to college.
00;05;50;12 – 00;06;23;11
Olga Samples Davis
That’s insane. People would say, but they believed in education. So it we come from a long line of people that are very serious, yet joyful about learning and sharing.
Marcus Goodyear
So your grandparents sold their house to go down to go to seminary.
Olga Samples Davis
I really, I mean it, I just know that stories is so encouraging and amazing at the same time.
00;06;23;14 – 00;06;45;25
Marcus Goodyear
I mean, how talk about a leap of faith. That is amazing. I mean, I don’t know that education is only about words, but, to be willing to sell your house must mean that you believe in the power of education, the power of words, and God.
Olga Samples Davis
Yes. That’s right.
Marcus Goodyear
Can you imagine a situation where somebody is living by words that are different than the words you live by?
00;06;45;26 – 00;07;27;16
Marcus Goodyear
And what do you do in that situation?
Olga Samples Davis
I have, throughout my travels in this world, be it the neighborhood, the city, a state and nation, the continent, that kindness is, the language that the blind can see and the deaf can hear. I may not know your language. You might not know mine. But there’s something magical. Maybe magical isn’t the right word, but something so rich and good about kind means that people learn to communicate enough to get to where they want to go.
00;07;27;18 – 00;07;58;27
Olga Samples Davis
But if you can just be present with somebody, you can get on their frequency and really do joy with strangers in all the time. Yeah, that is so much fun to just be present with people and find out, wow, where’s the gifts here today?
Camille Hall Ortega
I imagine that someone like you, who values words so much, can make just a huge difference in people’s lives just as you converse with them.
00;07;58;29 – 00;08;23;19
Camille Hall Ortega
How do you find yourself using words to encourage others?
Olga Samples Davis
You find the divine in people, and you try to find it very quickly. And only reason why I stayed in education as long as I did was because you have a chance, really do community service and education. I mean, that’s some serious work there. People come with a great deal of pain.
00;08;24;01 – 00;08;51;12
Olga Samples Davis
You don’t know what burden they’re carrying. You don’t know where they’ve been, where they’re going. I mean, you have no idea of their circumstance until they start telling their story. And I was in a, discipline where you told your stories all the time in a community division. And literally there were people in the class who just break down crying, and everybody else was crying, too.
00;08;51;14 – 00;09;23;16
Olga Samples Davis
But it was a safe place. It was a sacred place. And in those moments, you’re able to just touch a divine is in a person’s soul and offer them help, because now you know more. And now that you know more, you have to do more. So, I’m getting a little off topic here, but I do not take them as quickly as I could to my office after everything was over and open up the United Way.
00;09;23;27 – 00;09;45;28
Olga Samples Davis
Service manual, where they could get help for different things that they would need. And those kind of things get passed on to other people. They help other people. I said, here’s the ticket. No payment. We’re not talking about an exchange, sir. Tit for tat here, so to speak. We’re talking about. Now you pass it on.
00;09;46;01 – 00;10;09;16
Camille Hall Ortega
You pay for it. Paying it forward.
Marcus Goodyear
An exchange, but not a transactional exchange. And you exchange.
Olga Samples Davis
Exactly. Yeah. Well.
Camille Hall Ortega
That’s beautiful. I would really love to hear more.
I’m hearing now that we share some background, which I think is really exciting. My educational background is also in communication studies, and I got to teach at the college level as well.
00;10;09;16 – 00;10;37;17
Camille Hall Ortega
And I’m just thinking about you are bringing up memories for me that are so meaningful. I taught, at a community college, a public speaking course, a summer course, and when you’re teaching a course like that, your audience can run the gamut. The students, some of them were back in their hometown for the summer, and they were going to have an a four year program at a big university.
00;10;37;20 – 00;11;06;16
Camille Hall Ortega
And they’re just here to get a credit out of the way, to take back to their university. And some folks were working a full time job and taking, you know, classes here and there. And some were single moms just trying to get back into the classroom and working on their associate. And in a public speaking course, you have people, you know, Jerry Seinfeld makes the joke like people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of death.
00;11;06;16 – 00;11;32;19
Camille Hall Ortega
So people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy, which I always thought was a funny joke. But you have people who are really fearful of sharing words in front of other folks.
Olga Samples Davis
You are so right. Yes, yes.
Camille Hall Ortega
And so to see growth from people learning how to share their voice with words, prepared words, or extemporaneous words was such a gift.
00;11;32;20 – 00;12;03;08
Camille Hall Ortega
I imagine you have a lot of stories of students that sort of found the power of words in your classroom and beyond.
Olga Samples Davis
I’ve been blessed to, have them teach me. Really good. The first few months of a public speaking class when they’re telling these personal stories I’ve had, I had one woman to go and labor, a man to faint.
00;12;03;11 – 00;12;28;25
Olga Samples Davis
I mean, it was just like something out of a nightmare, you know that. You’re right. It’s like the fear of dying. So everyone waits to take that course. Very end to the very end. Yes, yes. And they just. I mean, you didn’t know what to expect next. Really? Quite frankly. Some people got up and walked out. Never went and came back.
00;12;28;25 – 00;12;51;00
Olga Samples Davis
You know, I tried to track them down. It was just so painful. Right up there with the fear of dying.
Marcus Goodyear
What do you think is the source of that pain?
Olga Samples Davis
You remember that old joke, or it was someone call it a joke. But really, for some people, it’s reality. It’s almost like you’re butt naked in front of an audience.
00;12;51;03 – 00;13;20;27
Olga Samples Davis
You know, normally you’d be a little bit uncomfortable. I mean, right, you’re sharing your most intimate thoughts. If you’re telling a personal story, which is one of the most effective ways to get the attention of an audience, so you’re born your soul. You probably have an even better result when most members of your family. Right. And then they have something on you.
00;13;20;29 – 00;13;52;18
Olga Samples Davis
You know, you’re afraid of them having something that they could use later.
Marcus Goodyear
It’s like a it’s like a fear of intimacy, but not an inappropriate fear because people use intimacy against each other.
Olga Samples Davis
Yes.
Camille Hall Ortega
Yeah. Or to get closer. Right. Yeah.
Olga Samples Davis
Yes. But what I loved about the classes is if you stay and we had this common commitment to cherish and keep to ourselves with a story.
00;13;52;18 – 00;14;12;20
Olga Samples Davis
It’s. I mean, we didn’t go out. You didn’t hear them all over campus or anything like that. Right. So I thought that that whole trustworthiness that I tried to ensure for them, they took it and made it happen for real. And they’re still in touch. Most of my students are still in touch with others in their classes.
00;14;12;20 – 00;14;42;17
Olga Samples Davis
So, hoping that continues.
Camille Hall Ortega
There’s a bond that’s created in that ability. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great.
Olga Samples Davis
When you tell the word stories about yourself, you’re not telling usually the best stories about yourself, right? You’re telling the worst time in your life. Usually something very traumatic. Then most people don’t know about you.
Marcus Goodyear
So how did you find the courage to share your voice in your stories?
00;14;42;19 – 00;15;10;12
Olga Samples Davis
I had a mother that said, you do it or you die.
Camille Hall Ortega
Nothing like a mom threat.
Olga Samples Davis
Yeah. Come on. I’m brought you in this world. I’d take you out when she didn’t mean that she’d actually take us to meet Jesus early. But you felt like she meant it. Yeah. You. And you have to understand, at the time when I was growing up, the only safe you had very few safe havens.
00;15;10;14 – 00;15;43;16
Olga Samples Davis
So the church was the mainstay. And at church, you had to learn to tell your story. No matter how old you were, how young you were, you had to learn to speak aloud scripture, no matter how old, how young you were. So you were responsible for speaking aloud those words that could change lives and you had to take it seriously.
00;15;43;17 – 00;16;12;23
Olga Samples Davis
It was not a simple, I’m going to memorize this. You have to seal it or you did it over and over and over and over again. It was a torture at times. But you understood later why that was so important. And in those rough times in life, that’s when you could call it up and say, Oh yeah, I understand that.
00;16;12;26 – 00;17;00;06
Olga Samples Davis
I can do all things through him. Who gives me strength? That’s right.
Marcus Goodyear
Yeah. Now in a church you’ve got, multiple generations. It’s a little bit different than a classroom where you have usually sort of one generation. And then the teacher. Do you think that different generations need different words?
Olga Samples Davis
I think. The word change regardless. I mean, yeah, we’re in a society where we’re constantly evolving and people are creating what’s best for them in terms of their communication processes or whatever they are.
00;17;00;08 – 00;17;28;12
Olga Samples Davis
They’re making their thing happen, so to speak. Yeah, in certain generations. So guess what? Just jump on a wagon and find out. I can relate to you and expand your territory. Take an opportunity to find out what’s going on. It would behoove you to do so. I mean, it’s called life, right? If you really want to live it, you need to try to jump on the bandwagon and understand as much as you can.
00;17;28;17 – 00;18;00;27
Marcus Goodyear
When you say expand your territory, I usually hear that used to mean expand your finances and power and stuff, but you’re using it to talk about language, to talk about understanding.
Olga Samples Davis
Yes, yes. Yeah, I certainly am, I think. What is it? And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, oh, that you would bless me in deed and expand my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.
00;18;00;28 – 00;18;27;18
Olga Samples Davis
And God granted what he did. So yeah, I’m using it in the sense of, by any means necessary. Do what you have to do in order to grow without hurting someone else. And certainly not yourself either.
Marcus Goodyear
This is the 20th anniversary of your book things my mama told Me. Does it feel like it’s been 20 years.
00;18;29;04 – 00;18;50;06
Marcus Goodyear
Go fast. So when I, when I picked up this book again recently and I was, you know, thinking about it as a tribute to your mama, I forgot that very early in the book, you tell this story where your mom is kind of picking on you and you tell yourself, just accept it. You are her target today.
00;18;50;07 – 00;19;10;11
Marcus Goodyear
It’s fine. And it’s not the sort of thing I was expecting to get so early on in this book about your mother’s wisdom. And I’m wondering, how did you how do you love your mother’s wisdom and also still acknowledge that, like, not every wisdom, not every moment in her life is full of wisdom. And how do you create that separation?
00;19;10;13 – 00;19;51;26
Olga Samples Davis
Marcus, you have children, don’t you? No.
Marcus Goodyear
Yes.
Olga Samples Davis
Each child is treated a little bit differently. You have to tweak your little program for each child. I was the child that needed tough love. And really. I mean, when I said I was to start with that, to suck it up, buttercup, basically, I knew school was in session. I needed to be a teacher because I was about to get the premier lesson here for a host of the that I thought I knew something about and didn’t know diddly.
00;19;51;29 – 00;20;29;27
Olga Samples Davis
So, I just always got ready when there was a certain look, a certain response, and said, “oh, I’m in trouble with Mrs. Bubble,” so to speak. Yes. But to come back, it’s really it was just these were really moments of wisdom on a different level. I got wise when she made me go through whatever steps I needed to go through to be better, and what it was that I should have done right the first time.
00;20;30;09 – 00;21;02;29
Olga Samples Davis
She did not play, And this love that line she used when you overstep your bounds. And she would just simply say, oh, so you want to meet Jesus early today? Pretty good, right? Yes, yes. And she’d always add a term of endearment. Precious. Do you want to meet Jesus for the day?
Camille Hall Ortega
Oh my goodness. Yes.
00;21;03;01 – 00;21;37;11
Camille Hall Ortega
I love, I love this thought of a mother’s wisdom and a mother’s words being so powerful because we know that relationship. You know, for most people, it’s meaningful in some way, whether really positive or really negative or somewhere in between. The mom child relationship is really powerful. I’m curious to know you’ve shared a little bit, but I’m curious to know what’s maybe one piece of wisdom that you received from your mother that is most memorable for you?
00;21;37;14 – 00;22;24;09
Olga Samples Davis
Actually, one day she said to me, “I made a terrible mistake.” And she said simply. In a stern yet loving voice. That behavior was not worthy of you. It just hurt so much. And it was the way she said it. Yeah. With the love and respect for what it was that she knew was good in me. But yet I had not demonstrated that.
00;22;24;25 – 00;22;53;23
Olga Samples Davis
But when she said that behavior was not worthy of you. Oh it just made me rethink a thousand different things. I went into a silent retreat. Literally and said nothing for the rest of the day. She had come in to check on me because she said oh my goodness are you sick. I mean she didn’t even realize the power of the statement.
Camille Hall Ortega
And it stuck with you.
00;22;53;27 – 00;23;20;09
Olga Samples Davis
It started so that it didn’t work. So you have that in my mind. You know, it’s this. I mean, when someone’s rude and ugly to me. Don’t go there. I’ll go. Don’t go there. Find something right about this situation. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Find something right. Do not leave this way. Don’t even walk away.
00;23;20;09 – 00;23;46;02
Olga Samples Davis
Even if that looks like a fight. Just stay and see if you can’t find something right or divine about this situation. And use it or celebrate it.
Marcus Goodyear
Yeah. That’s a that’s such a simple challenge. When we’re faced with so many negative words to always look for the good. For the last two decades, you’ve been coming out to Laity Lodge a lot as well.
00;23;46;05 – 00;24;21;25
Marcus Goodyear
And, at Laity Lodge is a particular environment, particular kind of culture that gets created at each retreat. What words, do you think define a Laity Lodge retreat? And are there any that kind of don’t belong there, or that might mess up a retreat?
Olga Samples Davis
I always think of Laity Lodge in this way. It’s like even before you reach the river and you go through it.
00;24;21;28 – 00;24;57;16
Olga Samples Davis
Yeah.
Marcus Goodyear
You have to drive in the river to get there, right?
Olga Samples Davis
Yeah. It’s almost like the angels are saying, come. Come. Let me bathe you in these waters of love. Soak you with tenderness. Working with kindness. Slather you in new joy. Come. Be baptized again and again and again and again. Come and be. Bathe in these waters of,
00;24;57;18 – 00;25;27;03
Olga Samples Davis
And may me just keep writing. At one point about this whole experience. It was always back to water. And literally I have never ever met anyone who was not changed after retreat for the better. The pain was still there. But you know this journey was not promised to be painless. That’s right. And joy is not the absence of pain.
00;25;27;05 – 00;26;05;09
Olga Samples Davis
It’s just the presence of God. So I mean how can you not see God now even if you’re running fast? How can you not see God? And so many people are there to help you. Now they’re not assigned to you. But you become a sibling even as a shorthand. We’re all just siblings to the point where we agree, we disagree, but we still walk together hand in hand.
00;26;05;22 – 00;26;34;03
Olga Samples Davis
It’s the, the most amazing place, a retreat, opportunity and space I have ever been in my life. And I’ve been for quite a few.
Marcus Goodyear
Oh, I love that. Lady Lodge is special for so many people. I wish that that special places could be everywhere. I wonder, like, what does it look like to have a healthier Texas or a healthier America?
00;26;34;06 – 00;26;59;09
Marcus Goodyear
What kind of words do we need to use to feel like we’re being, you know, re baptized every day as a state or as a nation?
Olga Samples Davis
I don’t know if I have the answer to that, but I will say what I know has worked for me. To try to be a better representative of God each day. I just choose to be kind.
00;26;59;09 – 00;27;36;06
Olga Samples Davis
And I don’t know, it’s it doesn’t always work 100%. I miss the mark often, but I try to be kind. And by that I mean to just use words and deeds with every day people I run across, including family, of course, and friends to just let those words and deeds offer hope and healing and love and laughter and joy and inspiration, illumination, education, encouragement.
00;27;37;02 – 00;28;08;19
Olga Samples Davis
Kindness. I think kindness is just one of the byproducts of love. But those other gifts I mentioned and they’re doable. You go into the grocery store. Come on. Sometimes the cashier is just having a terrible day. And they don’t mind taking it out on you because you’re not paying them. So you know you can just ask her how are you doing today.
00;28;08;22 – 00;28;34;20
Olga Samples Davis
Fine. You know it’s very graph and rough and just refusal to, to make a connection. But all you have to do is find one right thing about that person and compliment them on. And they will change. You’ll see a little slight change. Not a big change, but little slight change. And then that gives you an opportunity to go.
00;28;34;21 – 00;29;04;18
Olga Samples Davis
Yes, a little bit further and say, okay, well, you know, extend the conversation. And she’s still or he’s still doing what they have to do, but you can see a change. So it just starts with those little bitty words and these that have a big positive outcome. Nobody cares. Most people don’t care whether you’re having, problems or not.
00;29;04;21 – 00;29;28;26
Olga Samples Davis
But you can see, I believe if you look closely, you can see what it is that people need. You gotta try to look for the divine. True enough, but just basic things. And if they can, if you can just do a little of that. It’s like, my big thing is I’m not leaving this town until I make that person smile.
00;29;29;16 – 00;29;54;23
Olga Samples Davis
Not in the words of jokes in the world, because, the so corny. They’re just awful. You have to laugh because there’s some crazy. And sometimes that works, but I have to work hard at that, so I try to do something else, but just that kind of becomes you know, what color is there? Then I have to ask you.
00;29;54;24 – 00;30;22;14
Olga Samples Davis
Yes. Green. Okay. All right. Like money. Right? You know, you can just a small, tiny little thing can make a difference. And then I usually try to keep going back to that person until they. They can’t come around. They know me by name. And I know them by name because I always. That’s another thing. It’s so simple courtesy to speak to that person by name if they have a badge on.
00;30;22;28 – 00;30;43;18
Olga Samples Davis
It’s a simple little thing and I always use. Hello, Horatio. Well, young man, look at you today with your bow tie. I’m scared of you. You know, just have a little fun with it. Because even if they think you’re crazy as a road lizard, that will make them a little joyful. Because I say they’re crazier than I am.
00;30;43;20 – 00;31;19;05
Olga Samples Davis
You know, something more good will come. But you do have to try. So I think that that’s where we begin with just being healthy. So maybe we can exchange other things, like the difficult topics. Meanness. I mean, this is. It’s hard to swallow. Yeah. It’s hard to swallow. And I think some meanness. There’s a degree of most mean being said and done or out of ignorance.
00;31;19;07 – 00;31;51;00
Olga Samples Davis
I think people don’t know any better. And if we’re not helping them to get better, it’s not going to get better. I mean, really, quite frankly, misinformation is out there. Yeah. Say more about that. Yeah. In the classroom, it’s our responsibility to help people research properly. Okay. And to go to primary sources. Right? Yeah. Legitimate.
00;31;51;03 – 00;32;29;28
Olga Samples Davis
We’re not talking about some fly by night publication that came in or, really uncut, actionable media situations out here. I, you know, it’s just all over the place. It’s hard to even wrap your head around the times. Yeah. Yeah. But it starts with what? Where did you get that information from? And if you’re able to help them see that maybe that wasn’t a credible source, that there’s maybe heightened understanding and you get going to another source.
00;32;29;28 – 00;33;05;22
Olga Samples Davis
Or here’s some things that I’ve learned. Would that be helpful? Usually if you ask them a question, it’s not as intimidating. How did you get that? You know, that was in the grocery store not long ago. And, someone didn’t notice. I was behind an individual who turned around and, used a terrible name and describing black people and I said, oh, where what?
00;33;05;25 – 00;33;37;14
Olga Samples Davis
Who what? You know, because I know my rightful name. So I figured he wasn’t talking about me. Of course, I know he was, but the thing is, I say, sir, did you do you know the actual dictionary definition of that word? And of course he wasn’t going to talk to me, but I was in a safe enough place where I could at least put that forth and hope I can run fast to my car.
00;33;37;14 – 00;33;58;12
Olga Samples Davis
When I got out of there.
Camille Hall Ortega
Wow.
Marcus Goodyear
Amazing you can laugh about it. It was it was a public place, a very respectable public place. But, you know, for him to shout out when he did, those people that didn’t use that term was just too much. It was just one of those times where all the had to say something.
00;33;58;14 – 00;34;30;12
Olga Samples Davis
Sure. Absolutely. I said, sir. You’ll find under if you go to the dictionary, you’ll find any one’s name can be under that term word that you use to describe other people. I said, have a nice day. God bless you. Love match right there. And walked out the store because I knew I couldn’t. That’s all I could do.
00;34;30;15 – 00;34;58;26
Unknown
But to not do something or. It’s not an order. You exchanged his hatred in words for kindness with yours. And yeah, I wasn’t angry. I was really more sad. Sure. Yeah, I was not. Yeah. You know, I don’t do the anger thing. I mean, even when I was in the civil rights movement and your life was constantly threatened, I never remembered being angry.
00;34;58;29 – 00;35;29;21
Olga Samples Davis
I just remember being sad and saying, okay, that work harder. You gotta do more. What can you do? You know. But to do nothing was not satisfactory. Was not acceptable. And sometimes you just get full like that and you have to do something. But all of us can find in our vocabulary words of kindness for our siblings.
00;35;29;21 – 00;35;57;13
Olga Samples Davis
After all, we’re all human beings. And that that’s it. That I’m. I’m going to, a side topic here because that’s all words that they say. The Thurgood Marshall said about this humanness. He said, don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that, because that is what the world needs.
00;35;57;15 – 00;36;35;06
Olga Samples Davis
And then he said, in recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute. All we have to do is recognize the humanity of our fellow beings, and we pay ourselves the highest tribute. Wow. I never forget those words because it’s it says so much and I work as often as I can. I try to remind people, you know, we’re connected whether you like it or not.
00;36;35;07 – 00;36;59;00
Marcus Goodyear
That’s right.
Camille Hall Ortega
Right. Okay.
Olga Samples Davis
We are connected. Yes. And we are. Be like crabs in the bucket, pulling each other down with. As soon as one crab makes it to the top. We can help one another out and stand on each other’s shoulders and get to where we have to go, and then pull somebody else. Yeah. So it’s it gets what?
00;36;59;02 – 00;37;23;07
Olga Samples Davis
Then we all get to eat from the garden. I mean, We all get to go to the banquet.
Camille Hall Ortega
That’s good.
Olga Samples Davis
We all get to sing the Hallelujah chorus, even if it’s in an off key. Where do I have that?
Marcus Goodyear
I love, I love this. I was going to ask you what words you think the world needs now.
00;37;23;07 – 00;37;50;14
Marcus Goodyear
But I love this idea that what the world needs is for us to come alive. On the one hand, it seems, so simple that you just returned. Return words with kindness or, you know, flip things back toward love. But it almost sometimes. Olga, I almost have trouble believing that you’re you. It does. That makes sense. Like you’re just so good.
00;37;50;17 – 00;38;15;18
Marcus Goodyear
And I’m like, what’s your secret?
Olga Samples Davis
I don’t, I, I can be up here. I can. It it’s like you really don’t want to see me on a tear in the classroom when somebody has broken all the rules. It’s not nice. It’s respect for. But it’s not nice. You wish like I wish that day. I wish my mother just gone and beat me.
00;38;15;18 – 00;38;42;13
Olga Samples Davis
Instead of saying that behavior was not worthy of you, darling. You know, I. Oh, I have my moments like everybody else. I am in pain like everyone else. I was particularly, an awful human being I felt when I was losing my husband. And then I was losing my mom, and I was the caregiver for both of them.
00;38;42;13 – 00;39;11;08
Olga Samples Davis
And they. I was losing them in my home. So. And they were back to back. Just. I don’t even know. It was like going through some kind of, storm does not even begin to say what it was, just, a darkness that I never knew, but I was functioning. I was polite to people. I didn’t take it out on people for the most part.
00;39;11;11 – 00;39;39;01
Olga Samples Davis
I took it out on myself. And, you know, how can I not do more? Why can’t I? You know, I just fell apart and didn’t know how to put myself back together. I mean, I’m glad I know. God, I’m telling you, I was just wham! At time. What am I doing? I’m so tired. One night, I was driving home from work and I was on I-10.
00;39;39;04 – 00;40;03;29
Olga Samples Davis
Supposed to take Universal City cut off, and oh my gosh, I ended up in Seguin and I don’t know how I got there. I’m just brain dead because, two hours of sleep. Stunned. That just doesn’t work over a long period. Yeah. So I was not the best person in the world, but I learned a lot during that time because it’s the toughest work I’ve ever done.
00;40;04;02 – 00;40;33;02
Olga Samples Davis
I don’t mind telling you. You know, my with my husband, I’m like, I can do this. But it was then different. It was just as hard with my husband in a different way. But it was different with my mom.
Marcus Goodyear
Yeah, yeah. It’s just it’s tough.
Olga Samples Davis
This, I just felt like I messed it all up. I wasn’t getting support from the people I who had promised support, and it was just.
00;40;33;05 – 00;40;54;14
Olga Samples Davis
If ever I was angry and lied at a time. There were times when I was angry. Then that’s the one thing the civil rights movement didn’t bother me. I was like, I am going to die on that march across this bridge because you don’t swim. This is Chesapeake Bay. You schools around by the KKK watch a possibility, you know?
00;40;54;16 – 00;41;26;17
Unknown
Come on, get out of here. But I thought this this was a whole new ballgame. Do you think you felt more alone and that that’s part of it, that in the civil rights you were marching in a group, whereas with your your husband and your mom, didn’t have as much. I was alone, but I forgot something that I usually practice, which was stop pleading with God and just please God.
00;41;26;19 – 00;41;55;05
Camille Hall Ortega
Wow.
Olga Samples Davis
Was like, oh my God, Lord, please daddy, you know, please. So I messed up. That’s where I messed up. Took me a while to figure it out, but I was spending too much energy pleading and not pleasing. And to please God means what to you when during that time? Trust and obey. You know, I wasn’t running things.
00;41;55;10 – 00;42;30;02
Olga Samples Davis
I really think about it. I mean, I was doing the care, but who’s in charge? God’s heart.
Marcus Goodyear
It’s beautiful. Okay. Any last words about words?
Olga Samples Davis
I’ve always believed in the power of the word, and I’ve always believed in that understanding that at the touch of love, everyone speaks in poetic words. I mean, I just, I you love something.
00;42;30;02 – 00;42;54;10
Olga Samples Davis
Enough. It’ll give up all its secrets.
Marcus Goodyear
I love it, I love it. Olga, thank you so much for joining us today. It is always a delight and today has been no exception. Wonderful to have you with us. Thank you, thank you. Pleasure.
Camille Hall Ortega
The Echoes podcast is written and produced by Marcus Goodyear, Rob Stinnett and Meek Mill Hall Ortega.
00;42;54;13 – 00;43;31;18
Camille Hall Ortega
It’s edited by Rob Stinnett and Kim Stone. Our executive producers are Patton Dodd and David Rogers. Special thanks to our guest today, Olga Samples Davis. This podcast is a production brought to you by the H. E. Butt Foundation. You can learn more about our vision and mission at hebfdn.org.