In 1861, Julia Ward Howe visited a Union Army camp on the Potomac River. She’d heard the soldiers singing the song “John Brown’s Body” - was so taken with the strong marching beat, she wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic the very next day. This has been so popular - it’s been sung at the funerals of Churchill, Robert Kennedy, Reagan and Nixon.
“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” Tenneva Jordan.
In 1872, it was the first year Howe was to hold her Mother’s Day meeting in Boston, MA - something she repeated each year. Anna Jarvis, in 1907, began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day. She persuaded her mother’s church in WV to celebrate Mother’s Day on the second anniversary of her mother’s death - the 2nd Sunday in May. In 1910, the Governor of WV proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day - and a year later, every state joined in.
There are 82.5 million mothers in the US. This day, Mother’s Day, is widely reported as the peak day of the year for long distance telephone calls. Behind only Christmas, it’s the 2nd biggest gift giving day. The average mother has two children. The almighty dollar/need lends to the fact in 2002, fitty-five % of mothers were in the workforce, compared with 31% in 1976.
“A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.” Diana, Princess of Wales.
My cousin’s husband just returned from South Africa on a mission. The mission was to simply assist in all the orphanages inland. (In general, the affluent whites live on the coasts, and the poorer blacks live inland, working in diamond mines.) Children are given up for adoption as there is simply not enough money to feed, house them. My cousin told of one family who was raising in excess of 50 children, 20-some of which have Aids.
“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” Oprah Winfrey.
The point above - yes, there are those among us who perhaps didn’t have the ideal mother/child relationship. I was on the lucky end of the spectrum, I could’ve written a letter to God asking for all the qualities I’d want in a mother, and jualah, I had her. Not a day (since she departed in 1987) goes by I don’t think of her.
I’ve been scared shitless in baseball facing a “not-knowin’-where-it’s-goin” rag arm lefty. I clinch the steering wheel until there ain’t no blood circulating when there’s 5 inches of snow on the highway. I’ve walked tepidly in the City late at night - praying for safe arrival upon my car.
None of that even comes close to giving birth. Whilst the umbilical cord is cut - it’s emotionally never severed.
“A mother understands what a child does not say.” Jewish Proverb.
Mothers don’t get days off. Mothers are there 24/7. Mothers are the best unpaid psychologists. Mothers never stop giving. Mothers are the best listeners. Mothers make the home what it is.
“A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.” Irish Proverb.
“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Abraham Lincoln.
If it twerent’ for mothers (inventions), we wouldn’t have alphabet blocks, alternating current, band aids, chocolate chip cookes, the circular saw, dishwasher, electronic hot water heater, engine muffler, globes, ironing boards, life rafts, liquid paper, medical syringe, rotary engine, windshield wipers - and much, much more.
Mother’s birth, nourish, cook, sew, wash, clean, love, guide, listen, prop up, sometimes admonish, assist in helping their children ‘think from their own shoes’, smile, touch.. And again, so much more.
When it came time for the very first child to be born, certainly the right gender was selected to borne it. It’d be a sad state had this responsibility been given to us men, and we know it.
Oh we’re rough and we’re tough when it comes to not showing our emotions.. We turn bolts and hammer nails with the best of ‘em. We hunt, we fish, we rough it. We mow, saw, build, coach, shelter. We’d never make it as moms though.
Blessya all, and Happy Mother’s Day, love, Victurd.
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