Mother's Day 2009

Slumdog Millionaire. We watched it last night on the eve of Mother’s Day. A point in there is that the mother is killed by religious intolerance. It was also true that the context of the children’s lives, where they must exploit every opportunity and are forced into constant danger was more a function of poverty, than losing their mother and becoming homeless. I can’t think of any other children today than those street children, the fear and toughness of their lives. If I embrace them I realize the need for stability, for parenting, family planning and education and public health and employment and community.

I remember my mom with many regrets. As I look into her poor sick face I can’t still imagine how our relationship would have been better. What can only be is the love of her from that part of me that yearns and appreciates beings as they are. She did her best but there is something more than providing a comfortable home, the stability, education and etc. There is also the enculturation of the heart and sharing that in the primary dyad. That’s what I’m a bit weak on. Orien is another matter. My heart is full with the Love of her and I’m grateful to be her mother. Despite our blind spots I hope we can build our relationship from the loving foundation we have.

Lest we forget…Julia Ward Howe’s creation of this day:

Mother's Day Proclamation
Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe our dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil At the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace... Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God - In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality, May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace.

“Only the thinking of clouds keeps the world on its untroubled course” Kenneth Patchen