The Mother of all Occasions - Mother's Day May 10

It's literally the mother of all holidays.  Mother's Day is celebrated in North America on the second Sunday of May or May 10th this year. 

The relatively new occasion, first celebrated in 1912, was the creation of Anna Jarvis of West Virginia. Her intent was to organize a day where family members could specifically recognize their mother. She even went as far as trademarking the name and the position of the apostrophe in the occasion's name. It was important to her that the occasion denoted singular possessive (Mother's Day) so that each family honoured their own mother, not plural possessive (Mothers' Day) commemorating every mother in the world.

Today Mother's Day is celebrated with gifts of flowers, jewelry and other gifts designed to pamper Mom as well as lots of invitations to brunch!  Mother's Day has become one of the most commercialized occasions celebrated in North America which would have been extremely distressing to it's founder. Ms. Jarvis was very vocal in her opposition to over commercialization. She strongly believed that a letter penned from the loving hand of a child was an ideal way to recognize mothers. Most people today however, enjoy the opportunity to spoil Mom!

One of the best literary satirists, Erma Bombeck, wrote a terrific piece about mothers early in her career. Enjoy an excerpt here:

When God Created Mothers by Erma Bombeck

When the good Lord was creating mothers He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; Have 180 moveable parts... all replaceable; Run on black coffee and leftovers; Have a lap that disappears when she stands up; A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; And six pairs of hands." 

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands... no way." "It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord. "It's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have." 

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks,
"What are you kids doing in there?" when she already knows. Another here in
the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know,
and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs
up and say, "I understand and I Love You" without so much as uttering a
word."

"Lord", said the angel, toughing His sleeve gently, "Come to bed.
Tomorrow..."
"I can't," said the Lord, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick... can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger... and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower."

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she
sighed.

"But tough!" said the Lord excitedly. "You cannot imagine what this mother
can do or endure."
"Can it think?"
"Not only think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a
leak," she pronounced. "I told You. You were trying to put too much into
this model."
"It's not a leak," said the Lord, "it's a tear."
"What's it for?"
"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride."
"You are a genius," said the angel.
The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there."

Happy Mother's Day