Gate A-4

As the older woman becomes more comfortable at the gate, she performs an action which has great symbolic value: “She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool/ cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and/ nuts—from her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate” (Lines 25-27). The poet describes the offering and the partaking of the mamool cookies as a “sacrament” (Line 29), elevating the friendly gesture to a sacred act. In Christianity, a sacrament refers to a ritual which marks the imparting of divine grace, such as a baptism or the ceremony of the Eucharist, in which bread and wine are shared as the body and spirit of Jesus. In the poem, the sacrament represents the sharing of human kindness. The mamool cookies are sweet, crumbly, and powdered with sugar, and these appealing qualities of the cookies represent kindness and hope. The airline’s decision to distribute apple juice to the waiting passengers extends the metaphor, as these small sweet gifts transform the mundane environment of an airport terminal into a scene of grace and transformation.