I apologize for my absence of late. Placement was much crazier than I had anticipated and oh, so lovely for the most part and I WILL write about highlights when it has finally sunk in that it's over. Whew.
Right now I've got my knickers in a twist about something else that's irked me of late.
Mother's day.
I've never been one for Hall.mark holidays in general, but Mother's day is especially troublesome. I read somewhere that it began as a day to write to your Mother, because, let's face it, we're not always as on-the-ball about communicating with our folks as we should be, but then it morphed into this pink toile thingie with flowers all over it served with brunch. (You're probably wondering at this point what the heck goes on at my house.)Honestly though, I'm not sure I want to celebrate it at all.
Why would I want to celebrate a day that causes so much pain to so many people I care about? And how can we justify buying that many cut flowers when so many women are dying in childbirth for lack of a tiny vial of oxytocin? (helps prevent post-partum hemorrhage).
I was sitting in church on Mother's day thinking of all the ways some churches/people/etc have excluded parents who have lost their children and pregnancies and I wanted to do something about it. My Mom, who is painfully aware of my outspoken feelings regarding injustice and my propensity for "making a scene" furrowed her brow and said "It's alRIGHT." But no, it wasn't and it isn't. Until every Mom, every where, is included and made a priority, I think it's hypocritical to celebrate those lucky few who are.
2 comments:
As one of those who lose out on Mother's Day, it doesn't bother me if we celebrate mothers. No, really it doesn't. This isn't an either or, and it's fair to no one to ban the holiday because it offends the few.
Having said that, I chose to celebrate by sending money to the pre-e foundation so that they can help find a cure for a disease that kills a woman every 6 minutes, and to write an email to my MP, to express my displeasure with the maternal health stance the government has taken in advance of the G8.
Perhaps we could do both. Celebrate women who are mothering, or only mothered for a bit, and help those along too.
It started off as a rememberance of mother's who lost son's in the war, after all.
Ahhhhh, so that's how the day started...Thank you for telling me.
This post was based on an op-ed article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/opinion/09kristof.html
I should wait until I cool down to write a blog post!
It's never been much of a holiday per se in my family. It's either forgotten or half-heartedly remembered and seems to cause more disappointment than anything else.
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