AllMother's Day: Mothers are special because ...
05/11/2003
They know your faults and love you anyway. They treasure your first crayon drawing like a Rembrandt. They care enough about you to make you their life's work.
Casseroles. Figurines. Cookies.
When you were small, she read you books like The Yearling and Cheaper by the Dozen. Her role model was Amelia Earhart, which instilled a lasting love of adventure. She made the best peanut-butter-and-banana toast in the neighborhood.
A smile. A hug. A secret.
Mothers are special because they cart you to school, to soccer, to ballet, to Cub Scouts, tothe doctor and dentist. They remember to feed the dog, the cat, the fish ... and the gerbil ... and the iguana.... They have shot more video of you than ABC has filmed Monday Night Football, and they still manage to watch those tapes with glee and energy.
Some moms still enjoy stilettos at 83.
Moms stress the value of holding your own opinion (unless it conflicts with theirs).
Forty years after you moved away from home, and Mom still knows what's best for you.
Moms can be moral compasses, the glue that holds the family together, the Mistress of Multi-tasking. Moms don't think anyone is good enough for you, but they are quick to love those who love you. They willingly sing a lullaby over the phone to your wife just to prove that, yes, there was a song called "Willie the Weeper" and you're not making it up.
They can become childlike as they grow older, acquainting you with the challenges they faced when you were a child.
Some moms teach you to throw a curve ball, slice a backhand, shovel manure. Other moms devotedly take you to T-ball and Little League games for years yet still have to be reminded that baseball is measured in runs, not points.
Moms sometimes forget to pay their utility bills, but they never forget that story about you as a naked toddler.
They drive across town to a strange school, hike up to the balcony of the gym, scrunch themselves into a seat alongside sweaty, screaming seventh-graders, all so they can see their skinny child play basketball against future Bill Waltons and Shaq O'Neills.
That's a mother's love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that "men are what their mothers made them."
But it was Dorothy Canfield Fisher who observed: "A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary."
URL:http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/stories/051103dnedimom.16744.html: |
