MOTHERHOOD IS THE PROBLEM

It will be Mother's Day tomorrow. 

My own mother's spirit has long since traveled to that Land which knows no shadow. 

I know she waits for me there with Sooner, 

the wolf-dog that once roamed the hills with Mother when she was a young girl.

When Mother visited the harsh home from which she had been taken to spend years in an orphanage, 

she was surprised her beloved Sooner was still alive. No other human could approach her.

But when Mother kneeled in front of her, Sooner laid her big head in Mother's lap. 

The wolf-dog finally felt the soft fingers stroke her that she had waited years to feel again. Sooner let out a long, slow sigh. And then, 

she died.

In my worldview, Sooner went to where she sat in that Land Of No Shadows with wagging tail 

until Mother walked up to her to kneel once again and hug that big head.

But I am a dinosaur ...

     It is current thinking in many universities that --

MOTHER IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THE WORLD ANYMORE ...

   In fact, motherhood is to blame for many of society's flaws.

Several university studies indicate it is time to drop the slogan. 

It encourages mothers to stay socially and financially hobbled,

 it alienates fathers and discourages other significant relationships between children and adults.

 

The studies state that the deification of mothers not only

 de-legitimises the relationship fathers, neighbors, friends, grandparents, teachers and carers have with children, 

it also diminishes the immense worth and value of these relationships.

 

The studies' summation started to rant on the effect of motherhood on gay fathers, and that is when I started to get a headache. 

I started to feel like a cultural dinosaur when I stumbled on several other studies that praise the effects of good mothers.

 

So?

What do I think of mothers?

MOTHER is not a noun it is a verb.

Mothers are forgiving—so forgive her in return. 

Perhaps nothing will be as valuable a gift to both of you as forgiveness. 

Open your heart and drop your resentments. Now that’s love.

 

Her boundaries made you a better person. 

You may not have liked some of her decisions, especially when you wanted to party with your friends, but she did keep you out of trouble.

 Look at some of your friends without a mom who has cared that much.

My own mother was a single mother: half Lakota, half Irish.  And she was accepted by neither.  We were alone, yet never lonely.

I knew that as long as there was breath in my mother's body, I would have a champion. 

In a very real sense, Mother sang my life into being.

To Sing Life Into Being:


My half-Lakota mother would take me on long walks at night,

pointing to the stars and telling me tales

of long ago when life was blinking-eye fresh

and animals could talk.

That is where THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS comes from.

She would always start those walks by pointing to the many-eyed blanket of night and say,

"The Great Mystery sang those stars to life, Little One. What words do you suppose He used?"

Perhaps that is why you and I sing life into being with our prose --

we carry that need to create we inherited from He whose song
spoke us to life.

What things are you grateful that your mother taught you?