Is there hope for mothers on Mother's Day?

Some time ago we took an online quiz that promised to tell us which poet we were most like. Our answers pointed to Charles Bukowski, someone with whom we were only vaguely familiar and, at the time, singularly unimpressed. Months after we got the results of the quiz, we came across a volume entitled Essential Bukowski. We're learning to not ignore this karmic messages left in our path, so we bought it and, some time later, even started to read it. Our impression of Bukowski as a poet has improved markedly. It seems that, like many things in life, his writing is an acquired taste. We're still working our way through and today read Bukowski's "Dinosauria, we". (Please go and read the whole thing.) It seems to fit our times only too well.

As an antidote to Bukowski's depressing prescience, we started to think about Studs Turkel's Hope Dies Last, which we last read a few years ago. The AARP has a nice summary that includes this quotation:

The lessons of the Great Depression? Don’t blame yourself. Turn to others. Take part in the community. The big boys are not that bright.

The last line seems more hopeful and, hopefully, more relevant to contemporary America than Bukowski's bleak prognostication. Then, we remembered one of our favorite stories from one of our favorite writers and people.

bloodroot growing next to Aldo Leopold's "Shack"

Photo by J. Harrington

Aldo Leopold, in his A Sand County Almanac, includes the essay "Thinking Like A Mountain." It clearly reflects how Leopold progressed from being a short-sighted wolf killer to taking a broader, longer perspective and learning to consider how to think like a mountain.

As we currently live in a country where, at the moment, it's too clear that "The big boys are not that bright," our wish for all mothers on Mother's Day is that they (and we) not give up hope. As Turkel reminds us,

Without hope, you can’t make it. And so long as we have that hope, we’ll be okay. Once you become active helping others, you feel alive. You don’t feel, “It’s my fault.” You become a different person. And others are changed, too.

Before we became the recovering planner that we are these days, we learned the aphorism "Trend is not destiny." Our society seems trending in a wrong direction these days but mothers are those most often found being "active helping others." That brings change. We thank you for that and wish you the strength and hope you need to continue. May your Mother's Day be filled with health, hope and happiness.

On Mother's Day

By Bruce Lansky

On Mother's Day it isn't smart

To give your mom a broken heart.

So here are thing you shouldn't say

To dear old mom on Mother's Day:

Don't tell here that you'll never eat

A carrot, celery, bean, or beet.

Don't tell her you think smoking's cool.

Don't tell her you've dropped out of school.

Don't tell her that you've drowned the cat.

Don't tell her that she looks too fat.

Dont't tell her when you're grown you'll be

A starving poet—just like me.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.