1. According to the "Cat Lovers Against the Bomb" calendar, May 8th is not only Mothers' Day, but it also marks the date when the US Peace Society began (1828), when World War II ended (1945), and when South Africa adopted an equal-rights-for-all constitution (1996). All very good things, and all very appropriate to Mother's Day.
2. The very lovely cat staring out at me in black and white from the page's photo is obviously a mama cat. She has that "watching the kittens" look about her.
Now, regarding point the first above: Maybe not everyone would make a connection between those three anniversaries and Mothers' Day, but you would if you had my mother. My mother is, basically, a "peacenik". And as she gets older, she has become more vocally, enthusiastically so. (She's been waiting her whole life to be a feisty little old lady, and she's now enjoying the hell out of being one.) And I would like to point out that she's not some throwback to the sixties' peace movement...she's a throwback to the fifties and the civil rights era, and the period before the civil rights era, and the early days of the Peace Corps (two years in Brazil and an occasional tendency to still use the Portuguese words for things) and she moved through those things as a fully-formed, reasoning adult, not as a teenager the way some of the Baby Boomers did. This is the woman who raised me (well, partly...but more on my fabulous Dad on Fathers' Day), and the one who drilled certain ideas and ideals into my impressionable little brain. She's very cool, and I love (and like) her a lot.
Moving from the topic of my mom and those anniversaries, I'll now mention the other mother close to my heart: My mother-in-law. I realize that without the mother-in-law joke, the state of comedy as we know it would be vastly different. And I have heard of and seen firsthand some absolutely horrific in-law situations. However, I have to say that I am one of the lucky ones. I love my mother-in-law very much, and not just because she raised my oh-so-spiffy husband. She's a wonderful woman all by herself, and I'm happy to consider her a friend as well as a member of my family. She and my father-in-law (another terrific guy) are getting ready to move from being a 2-hour drive from us to being about an 11- or 12-hour drive away, and I'm not pleased. I'm glad they're off to enjoy their retirement, but I'm going to miss them.
Anyway, there are some of my brief thoughts on Mothers' Day and the two women who I get to celebrate on it. I wish everyone else could be as lucky as I am.
