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Happy Mother’s Day – period | WORLD

Posted on by angelo
Happy Mother’s Day – period | WORLD

This weekend will mark the day a year “officially” reserved to honor mothers. Sure, maybe “Mother’s Day” was born out of a Hallmark PR strategy or something, but I don’t think it really matters. Moms deserve to be celebrated! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we move on to our Mother’s Day wishes, you know what many will say.

Everyone, now stop and think of all the people for whom this day will be painful. Some women aspire to become mothers. Some people lost their mothers this year. Some have complicated relationships with their mothers or children, or even no relationships at all. Yes, yes, happy Mother’s Day and etc. But… couldn’t you all moms (and the people who love them) accept that you’re not too happy about it?

When I became a mom about eight years ago, after a few years of struggle and longing, this “Happy Mother’s Day, BUT” phenomenon really started to irritate me.

It really is a strange impulse. We hardly do this for other holidays. Imagine, for example, spending most of your birthday each year repeatedly apologizing to everyone whose birthday is not today! And everyone who has bad memories associated with their birthday and or anyone who may have recently lost a loved one and therefore for whom “birthdays” carry particular pain. This sounds a bit like what you would read in The Babylon Bee.

To be fair, motherhood and our relationship with our mothers is something uniquely profound, so I understand the added weight of Mother’s Day. Still, all this overindulgent Mother’s Day excuses – I can almost guarantee you’ll see it in ads, in social media posts, you might even hear it from the pulpit – seems like another idiotic symptom to me of the virus of critical theory.

As a worldview, critical theory relies on a scarcity mindset. As a result, there is a limited amount of “goodness”, whether in the form of power, money, comfort, accolades, etc., and the “bad guys” are those who have it and the “good guys” are those who have it. . never done. In the economy of Critical Theory, any reason for personal celebration is suspect. Are you a mom? Well, I’ve already thought about all the people who are not?

Like all the other Victim Olympics events, this one suffers from a logical failure quite quickly. Imagine a woman who spends years sincerely wanting children, struggling to conceive, and finding Mother’s Day particularly painful – until the year it finally arrives; she also has a baby, and here it is Mother’s Day! Does she have the right to celebrate and be celebrated, or should she also apologize first?

Exactly one party “about you” is not a deliberate slap in the face to everyone who is not You.

Unfortunately, this idolatry of empathy (and the competition to prove who is the most empathetic) has also infiltrated Christian culture, and its champions have a favorite verse: “weep with those who mourn” (Romans 12). : 15). It is compassion, we are told. It is awareness, it is the gold standard of good Christian neighborliness! Of course, that’s only half the verse. The first half is much less trendy: “Rejoice with those who rejoice.” (Yeah, Paul.)

It is likely that those who will celebrate their Happy Mother’s Day this year, like every year, have good intentions. Desiring children is a good thing, as is desiring good relationships with our mothers. The pain, uncertainty, and loss that surround infertility and all the other challenges of being a mother can be extremely painful. But reluctantly from the joy of those who TO DO have children, or who TO DO have a good relationship with their mother — about this A day a year! – is not good.

A few years ago, tennis great Serena Williams wrote an essay for Vogue about her decision to take a break from tennis while she had her second child. “I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” she wrote. “If I were a man, I wouldn’t be writing this because I would be playing and winning while my wife did the physical labor of growing our family. … Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had the chance.

What is missing from this perspective is that “a man” will never have the opportunity to do what he wants. Williams East TO DO. She was about to carry, give birth, and become a mother to a precious child. What a shame to indulge in such unnecessary bitterness when she could have seen his gift for what it was. Maybe not everyone can play tennis like Serena William, but many, many, many people can play tennis. No one else can be her the children’s mother, not even Tom Brady. I am unequivocally certain that he had the last word in this matter.

This Mother’s Day, celebrate it extravagantly. Be joyful without guilt or restraint. Exactly one party “about you” is not a deliberate slap in the face to everyone who is not You. Forget all that. Rejoice with those who rejoice. There is no world without mothers; there is no you without your mother; and no other woman can be the mother of your children. Eat brunch, enjoy the flowers, cherish the messy pencil drawings and sappy cards. Happy Mother’s Day, period.