The Importance of Emotion

This past Saturday I went to Beans and Bread to serve the daily meal to the poor of Baltimore. I had always wanted to be able to experience this and when the opportunity arose where there were spots left for this Saturday I jumped right on it. There were only three students from Loyola College there, my roommate, a junior boy, and myself. There were also students from a local high school to help serve the meal.
We were each given a specific job; my job was to bus the tables. When each person got up to leave after their meal I wiped down the table in front to them, their seat, and placed a new napkin and fork on the table. There many jobs such as seating each person, being a waiter/waitress, or passing out drinks and desserts.
Beans and Bread is set up in a restaurant format. The people who run the soup kitchen want to make it as homey as possible, providing each person to sit comfortably and have a warm meal before going back out in the cold. Thanks to the generosity of others, each person is even able to have a second helping of their meal. We also give each person a few options, such as what they would like to drink and have to dessert. We know that once most people leave Beans and Bread they do not have the opportunity to make choices on what they would like and would not like.
Also, on each table there is an overflowing basket of bread, and a jar of peanut butter and jelly. Each person is able to make as many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as they like to bring out with them. For many, this will be their only other meal for the day. We would like to provide each person with a much as we possibly can.
While working I came across many different personalities and emotions from the people working, and those we served. Human emotion rules our everyday life. We all have emotions, and we all use them in each and every situation. For example, emotion is one of the elements of the readings we had for this Thursday.
As servers and volunteers at Beans and Bread we do not judge, ridicule, or correct any of the people that come in for a meal. We want to provide them with a nutritious lunch, not be judgmental. We try to serve each person with a smile, and for many that will be the only smile and kind gesture they receive all day. We leave all personal strife out of our serving; it is all about being kind to those around us. Many of those we served smiled right back at us, but unfortunately many did not. When we got negative feedback from our kind gestures it would definitely put a damper in the afternoon. Our emotions affect the emotions of all around us, whether we realize it or not.
Reading the two poems about America, Barbara Hamby’s “Ode to American English” and Tony Hoagland’s “America” made me think of all of the different personality traits and emotions that I experienced while working with the many people at Beans and Bread. Both poems include the many types of people that America has, on a bigger scale each state has different traits and a different type of people, which leads to so many different types of people inside of each state, each city, town, etc.
There was another component of “Ode to American English” that reminded me of my experience at Beans and Bread. The main theme of the poem is the different type of “speech” throughout America; there are so many different styles of slang and speech state to state. Coming from New Jersey there are many slang terms and phrases that I am used to and being at Beans and Bread I learned a whole new list of slang words and phrases that are more prevalent to Baltimore life.
Emotion is also seen in Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” as well as Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” In “My Last Duchess” the speaker of the poem has a very dominant tone. He is speaking about the woman that he cared for, who he had killed because he noticed a flush in her cheek that he knew did not come from him. Instead of talking to her about it, he ordered to have her killed. In this poem emotions ran wild, his pain and agony turned into a terrible rage ending in his ordering his woman to be killed.
Emotions also ran wild in “The Cask of Amontillado.” The speaker of the story is angry with Fortunato because of the amount he insulted him. Throughout the story he is looking for revenge against Fortunato. Rage also too the speaker of this story, like the speaker of “The Last Duchess.” The emotion of rage is a strong one and causes people to do very grave and crazy things. The speaker of “The Cask of Amontillado” ends up killing his enemy just like the speaker of “The Last Duchess.”
We may not realize it, but emotions are incredibly important in our day to day life. Emotions can run wild and make us to crazy things, or it could be the smile to brighten another person’s day. Either way, emotion plays an incredibly important role of each moment of our day.