“You’d better behave, or I’ll knock you from an amazing grace to a floating opportunity!” This African-American saying, used as a motherly warning, first popped up in the 1930 play Mule Bone by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Floating Opportunity”
Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hello, this is Donna from Tallahassee, Florida.
Hi, Donna. Hi, Donna. Welcome to the program. I have a very sweet and loving grandmother born in 1898 and passed away in 1983. And I was the oldest of her 13 grandchildren. And when we would be at her house and maybe got a little too noisy or rambunctious, she would say, all right, you all, you better behave, or I’m going to knock you from an amazing grace to a floating opportunity.
I love that.
From an amazing grace to a floating opportunity?
Right.
And, of course, she never did, but we all knew that meant Gran had just about had enough.
With that many grandkids, yes.
Yeah. Have you ever heard that?
Interesting. Are you African-American, perchance?
No, I am not.
Oh, it’s interesting because most of the uses that I find of this term come from African-American writers or people from the black community. Most of the older newspaper mentions of it are from black newspapers, and it almost never appears in print anyway from white folks.
Well, she had very, very close ties to the black community.
So that might explain it.
There we go.
That could explain it.
Like, for example, you’ll find this in a 1930 play written by Langston Hughes with the help of Zora Neale Hurston. It’s called Mule Bone. And it’s in there. And that’s where a lot of people pick it up from. If they read the great Harlem Renaissance writers and poets, they will probably have heard this numerous times.
Because it is such a striking phrase when somebody says, I will knock you from an amazing grace to a floating opportunity.
Love it.
And it’s almost opaque.
I’m not even really sure I know what it means.
I don’t know what it means.
I think what it means, it will knock you from being able to sing, I’m guessing here, being able to sing in church to being a ghost.
Oh.
So you’re going from singing Amazing Grace to being a ghost kind of hovering around, floating around.
So I’m just completely guessing.
I don’t know.
I have no idea.
And no expert that I can find knows anything about this.
How interesting.
Well, I enjoy this explanation so much, and maybe I can get a copy of that play and read that for myself.
You can find it in full online. Just look for Mulebone, M-U-L-E-B-O-N-E, by Langston Hughes. You’ll find numerous mentions of it. You’ll probably find full copies of it. I don’t think it’s out of copyright, but it’s one of those things where people put it up anyway.
I will do that.
Thank you so much for calling, Donna.
I really appreciate it.
Oh, thank you so much, and keep up your wonderful, insightful work.
Oh, thank you, Donna.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.
Bye now.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
