Name: Tess
Home: St. Louis
Happy Mother's Day!
If you looked at all the ads and articles blaring "What Mom Wants This Mother's Day," you'd have no clue about the day's history. At the turn of the last century, Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother, an Appalachian activist who had started Mother's Work Days to address problems of poverty and work towards peace and social justice. Mother's Day became a national holiday in 1914, but Jarvis soon became disenchanted as she saw it turn a commercial day of cards and gifts. (According to Wikipedia, Jarvis considered a Mother's Day greeting card "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write.") She spent her later years bitterly campaigning against the holiday she had created.
Today Mother's Day has strayed far from its origins of working for peace and justice for all women. A new organization, MomsRising, has just been launched to bring those issues back into focus. According to their web site, "MomsRising is working to build a massive grassroots online resource to move motherhood and family issues to the forefront of the country's awareness, and to provide grassroots support for leaders, as well as organizations, addressing key motherhood issues." I encourage my readers to look around their web site. I'm not sure if their petition asking the mainstream media to "stop the mommy wars" will be effective, but I was happy to sign it.
As sympathetic as I am to Anna Jarvis, I'll confess that I also like the commercial aspects of Mother's Day; I have a hard time turning down the chance for presents. I received two bouquets (one presented by Ben, and another surprise one from Tom), and we all went out to breakfast. Ben thoroughly enjoyed his pancake and orange juice. The three of us have been a family for nearly two years now, and it's a joy to see the baby who made me a mother becoming a little boy.
posted by Tess | 4:22 PM
6 Comments:
Yay for Mother's Day flowers!!!! I love alstromeria (sp?) not only because they're beautiful but also because they tend to last longer than other cut flowers!
I didn't know the origin of Mother's Day, but now I'm off to google more!
Happy belated Mother's Day!!!
LOL, Precie--glad to see work isn't keeping you too busy these days!
Wow, thanks for sharing the information! I had a recent realization when walking through the store and seeing memorials sitting out as part of the Memorial Day preparation. I actually had the thought, "Why are those grave coverings there?"
How sad that Memorial Day has become about picnics and the beginning of summer for me. As the realization of what I had just thought came over me, I hung my head in shame.
LMAO! I hate work. And I'm feeling a bit belligerent and rebellious today. I should feel terribly guilty. I mean, they do pay me. LOL!
Nicci--You wouldn't have that problem if you had grown up in Boalsburg, PA, the birthplace of Memorial Day! (Well, we're one of several towns that claims that distinction.) Every year, we had a carnival, a parade, and a service at the cemetary--not to mention all the Civil War reenactors setting off cannons at the military museum. As I've moved around the country, I've been surprised that most places don't make that big a deal out of the holiday.
There is something extremely sweet about the breakfast on Mother's Day. We did the same--skipping church, in lieu of much needed family time. We are so splintered these days it felt like a drug to sit and converse and laugh together.
Hh
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