Alaiyo- It means "One for whom bread is not enough". This nickname is given to the restless and often confused young woman in A Raisin in the Sun. I absolutely adore that nickname, and I think that as believers, that is what it is all about. Even before a life filled with Christ, I have always been an Alaiyo of some sort. To me, this name refers to that yearning deep within all of us, a longing that nothing of this world can seem to touch. That longing, of course (although not what the author of said play was referring to) is Christ.
What a perfect definition of that deep-rooted desire- to be one for whom bread is not enough. And how stupid are we to forget that we are the ones for whom bread was not meant to be enough.
One of my all time favorite lines from any play is in this play, and of course it's spoken by Mama-
"There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. [Looking at her] Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is."
So Jesus.
