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Sunday marks Mother’s Day, as most of you probably know. It’s usually celebrated with calls, maybe a special meal and, with a special gift from Dad and the kids.
As U.S. holidays go, this is a pretty new one. The first efforts to create such a holiday date back to 1905, and the first celebration of it took place at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in 1907. Congress considered making it a national holiday the next year, but rejected the proposal. So states took the lead. By 1911, every state was marking the day in some manner. The federal government caught up with a presidential proclamation from Woodrow Wilson in 1914.
There’s some irony to Wilson’s action coming in that year. One of the initial motivations for a Mother’s Day holiday was to advocate against sending husbands and sons to war. Less than three months after Wilson’s proclamation, Europe was plunging into World War I.
There’s also irony in the response years later of Anna Jarvis, whose advocacy played a major role in establishing the holiday. She came to resent the commercialization that went along with Mother’s Day. In 1922 she encouraged a boycott of florists who raised the price of flowers each May. And 13 years later she criticized Eleanor Roosevelt for using Mother’s Day to encourage fundraising for charities that supported work to curb maternal and infant mortality rates.
But, gifts along with flowers and special causes are a part of Mother’s Day and are some of the many ways we show our love and appreciation for our mothers.
A favorite Mother’s Day column that describes mothers to a tee was written by Erma Bombeck and is titled “When God Created Mothers.” She was a very funny lady, a gifted writer, and a devout Catholic. We’d like to share the column once again this Mother’s Day.
WHEN GOD CREATED MOTHERS
When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into his sixth day of “overtime” when an angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”
And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order?
• She has to be completely washable, but not plastic;
• Have 180 movable parts… all replaceable
• Run on black coffee and leftovers;
• Have a lap that disappears when she stands
• A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair;
• And six pairs of hands.”
The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands… no way.”
“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord. “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”
“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ’What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ’I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”
“Lord,” said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, “Go to bed. Tomorrow…”
“I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick… can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger… and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.”
The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.
“But she’s tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.”
“Can it think?”
“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. “There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You You were trying to push too much into this model.”
“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.”
“What’s it for?”
“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”
“You are a genius,” said the angel.
The Lord looked somber. “I didn’t put it there,” He said.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all Mothers.