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Editorial Note: This article originally appeared in The Weekly Choice on May 6, 2004.
Well, Mother’s Day is just around the corner – can you honestly say that you’re prepared?! Myself – I’ve already got a card picked out, and the florist on speed dial, and the cake mixes all ready to go – we certainly don’t take this time of year lightly here in my family! You see, my Mom always had a favorite saying of hers and it went a little something like this, “You listen to me, young man – I brought you into this world and I can take you right back out!”
No – I kid, I kid, but I do remember having friends whose Moms liked nothing more than to throw that one out there – needless to say, it was nice having the cool Mom! You know, one who’d make her home welcome to her son’s up and coming rock band week after week, and secretly even look forward to hearing the “improvements”; one who’d stay up for an extra hour to throw together a batch of no-bake cookies because it’d be easier in the long run than letting me anywhere near the kitchen; one who’d loan me her brand-new car to take downstate to a concert, despite the fact that I’d recently smashed my own in a freak accident that could’ve slightly been considered my fault. I could go on and on, but those days are now far behind us…
Instead of listening to band practice, these days we talk on the phone – about anything and everything, really, from work to how things are going back home to what’s going on in the world around us. I don’t need to borrow her car anymore because I once again have my own…made possible with a loan co-signed by her, mind you. She does still make me cookies, of course, and I always look forward to the days when I just randomly get a care package from home, almost as if I’ve gone away to camp during the summer and she’s worried about me starving from the camp food and all! Despite the fact that I don’t have the same raccoon problem in my apartment that I had in my tent so many years ago, most of those cookies still somehow manage to get eaten in one sitting – just out of habit, I suppose!
I honestly consider myself to be quite the lucky guy, though, as most people don’t have as good of a relationship as the one that I have with my Mom. Disagreements and petty arguments over things that just seem silly to the rest of the world, many things draw people apart from one another and in this crazy, mixed-up world in which we live, I think it’s a real shame. Few things are constant in this world – friends can come and go, even true love isn’t always meant to be, but the one thing that will always remain the same is family. They may very well drive you crazy at times, too, but in reality, it’s really a small price to pay for what you get in return…
Mother’s Day is just around the corner, so for those of you who currently find yourselves in the boat that I just described, picture this as your chance to make amends and get things back on level ground. Seriously though, all baked goods aside – even breads and pastries included, you’ll only ever have one Mother and life’s just too short to spend it being anything less than happy, so take the first step in the right direction and, mark my words, do whatever it takes to share a Happy Mother’s Day with the first lady in your life! And as for the rest of us, well just because we’re already on speaking terms certainly doesn’t get us off the hook – there’s a reason that the card companies have designated this day as one of their most profitable days of the year behind Christmas and Valentine’s Day…but it’s still worth it all the same, now isn’t it?!
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom – I love you!
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