My experiences with Mother’s Day over the years have been quite typical, send a card, receive a card. We are not ones to buy flowers. We are not ones to make a fuss. Mother’s Day is about receiving recognition for being a mother. Not something I am comfortable with. Even though being a mother has made me a better human being; mothers remain human, and thus intrinsically flawed. Therefore, my lack of comfort.
Today I found out that Mother’s Day was not originally about receiving gifts in recognition for being a mother, but about giving thought to mothers and children living in the rages of war and creating a day of peace. The poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation (1870) calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. Please watch this video, but make sure you have a Kleenex at hand.
For the first time in my Almost Fifty years, I will celebrate this Mother’s Day with all my heart and soul.
Yeah, I was amazed at reading about that too. I always thought that at least in Germany mother's day was something Hitler installed to keep women happily oppressed. And that it was continued because the flower industry liked it.
ReplyDeleteI will have to print that proclamation out and post it somewhere.