According to Sam and Jim Commenting on things that irk us off, make us laugh out loud or just seem too weird too believe According to Sam and Jim: Remember Mom On Mother's Day Even If She Isn't Perfect

Friday, May 10, 2013

Remember Mom On Mother's Day Even If She Isn't Perfect

Sam and I would like to wish all you mothers, wanna-be mothers, and mothers past and present a Happy Mother’s Day. But we won’t.

Just kidding. Happy mother’s day. Consider this blog post our Hallmark Hallelujah to you.

Sunday’s your special day eh? Maybe you’ll get breakfast in bed this morning. Maybe you’ll be taken out for a grand buffet brunch at your favorite restaurant. Maybe you’ll receive a nice commemorative card and/or flowers - and the flowers won’t be from Safeway or Costco, but from a real florist.

But think about it for a minute. Aren’t you glad you aren’t Osama bin Laden’s mother? Aren’t you glad you’re not the Boston Bomber’s mother or the mother of Ted Kaczynski? How’d you like to have been the mother of that Arias woman in Arizona just convicted of murdering her boyfriend? We just had a similar thing happen here in the Olympia area, a woman slashed her male lover’s throat and when he didn’t die quickly enough, she strangled him with an electric cord.

You might be proud though to be the mother of Hilary Clinton, who (trust me) IS going to run for president. You probably would be proud to be the mother of other famous women such as Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, maybe even Marilyn Monroe too. And there are many famous and good men you could be proud of if they called you mom.

Poor Sam probably doesn’t remember his mother but I think he got his love of the outdoors from her. I remember my mom - may she rest in peace. My mom was basically a good person and I’m sure she loved me (reasonably sure). But sometimes she tried my soul. I know she had kind of a rough time growing up poor and Italian, and because she wasn’t allowed to do much in her younger years - many of which encompassed the WWII era - she struck out on her own early and with somewhat disastrous results. She married out of her faith, got pregnant, gave birth to me and my sister and things went sort of downhill from there. Not that she didn’t survive and have an okay life, but she never had a wonderful life like, say June Cleaver (I often wished she was June Cleaver)

The sad thing is, my mom had to learn to be tough to survive and she learned that lesson so well that in her later years she was tough as rawhide, could swear like a sailor, and had a difficult if not impossible time seeing the good in people. I witnessed her verbally attack people many times and tear them to shreds with her words and I was embarrassed; if she had only learned to trust people more and to see the good in them. But as she aged, she became less and less able to trust. When any of us kids offered to have her come live with us she thought we were going to steal her money, lock her up and throw away the key. (I swear I never would have given in to that urge). Sadly, dad died just as she and he were preparing for retirement. They had bought a new pickup truck and were going to buy a trailer and planned to do some traveling. But they never got to do that. I think mom pretty much gave up hope for the good life after that.

My mother needed extra love in her later years. I tried to provide some of that, as did my brothers and sisters, though she didn’t always seem to want us to love her. What I’m saying here though is no matter what kind of person your mother is she no doubt deserves a little extra love, not only on Mother’s Day, but every day of the year. You may not know everything that happened to your mom to make her the person she is, so just remember, unless you’ve walked in her moccasins, don’t shoot her full of poison arrows and turn your back on her. There but for the Grace of God go you and I.

Two bags of poop on you if you don’t honor your mom Sunday, even if it’s just in your memory.

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