My mother died when I was a teenager and, although I have grown step-sons, I have never raised a child of my own.
On the surface, it would seem as if I have more a connection to almost any other holiday--including Flag Day, Arbor Day, and Periodontal Appreciation Day--than Mother’s Day.
But just as fish are not necessarily the best authorities on water, so are mothers not necessarily best authorities on the causes and effects of motherhood.
“Causes?”you might be saying, with an emphasis on the plural. “Did they invent another way to get pregnant while I was out of town?”
But indeed there are lots of ways to become a mother. There are also lots of ways to locate and adopt a mother for your own personal use when the original one is, for whatever distressing reason, no longer on your schedule.
I’ve always considered myself a mother, absence of young children notwithstanding. I look like somebody’s mother, I sound like anybody’s mother, and heaven knows I act like EVERYBODY’S mother. I advise, I worry, I scold, I applaud, and then I worry some more. As a teacher, I consider myself the mother of about a hundred and fifty kids every year--and all of them are in college. I just thank God I am not responsible for their tuition.
