The Woman's Word: Mothers' Day

The Woman's Word

It is enough that our children learn that giving, at times, holds a pleasure surpassing the pleasure of taking

With the coming of the second Sunday of May, "Mothers' Day" returns to us — symbol of the fruit's acknowledgment of the bounties of the mother tree.

It is the day of "motherhood," with all that motherhood holds of love, sacrifice, and giving. Is not the mother a symbol incarnate of all the elements of goodness, truth, and beauty — burning up her vitality and the freshness of her youth as an offering for the eyes of a little one who dwelt beside her inmost being for a span of time, that he might become everything in her existence, while she becomes nothing?!

Is there any love greater than a mother's love for her children? Is there any giving that pours itself out and stops at no limit, like the mother's giving, at every stage of her life?

Someone may ask: what is the lesson in consecrating one day of every year in which we single out mothers with a gracious gesture of acknowledged gratitude, and a warm handful of love?

There is no disputing that Mothers' Day is one of the innovations of this age, and that it arose out of a need. For modern education inclines to give the child an abundance of freedom and of opportunities to develop his personality and his self-reliance. This philosophy has tended to regard parents, and mothers above all, as something taken for granted... Little by little the halo of reverence and honor — which in the past was a strict duty the children performed in submission — has dwindled... This upheaval created a void, and the mother has paid the greatest share of its price... And so Mothers' Day came as the moral "consolation" for this void.

I have said that Mothers' Day is one of the innovations of this age; and it is a charming innovation which we would do well to borrow, to spread in our circles, and to propagate in its idea with all the gentle simplicity it carries... and its tender depth!

If we were to divide people into takers and givers, parents would surely be the givers and children surely the takers... It is the way of the universe, you will say. Yes, I answer you, so it is. But is it not a delightful pleasure to reverse the roles, one day each year, and make it a kind of beautiful and useful experiment? It is enough that our children learn from this day a wonderful lesson: that giving, at times, holds a pleasure surpassing the pleasure of taking. And how the little one's humanity is exalted, and how the horizon of his understanding widens, when he tastes this pleasure??

Every new practice that makes its way into society stands in need of publicity; and it is a sacred duty upon us to bring the meaning of this feast in particular within the understanding of our children and of those in our care, by practical means. Every mother, on her day, is invited with pride to receive love and giving; and every child is invited, with open hand and open heart, to remember this day and to celebrate it.

The time has come for us, as a living nation keeping pace with the spirit of the age, to give these sweet occasions their due of attention. And is there any measure of civilization and social progress better than our standing before our mothers — living and dead — in reverence and devotion??