I #Love My #Mom (Mother’s Day)
Holidays are a special time and should be treated with a certain level of respect, introspection if you support them, and curiosity if you aren’t familiar with them. Which is why I wanted to focus on Mother’s Day, while it’s still somewhat timely.
Yes I know that this post comes a bit late, but I think it’s rather appropriate given what I’ve witnessed recently and uncovered about the history of the topic at hand. Has anyone else noticed the cultural shift of Mother’s Day in the past couple of years?
It USED to be a holiday of commercialization, sprinkled with some sentiment. Now like so many other holidays, it’s one of self-promotion sprinkled with sentiment.
Fortunately I am not alone in this theory. Cracked seems to have caught on too, which they so cleverly showcased in a recent video of theirs. Don’t worry I embedded the link for you.
I’ve written it before, and I’ll write it again – I love being an artist, and am so thankful for the arts. That alternative lens of culture can be incredibly handy. When you see someone (or a group) parody something in culture, you know it’s a sensitive topic and full of opportunity. Mother’s Day is supposed to be a day about our individual mothers, not a day for the idea of mother or a theme to boost our own agendas. Heck, that’s why the word “Mother’s” is a singular possessive, to emphasize each families own mother.
But timotheories you’re writing about Mother’s Day and using it to talk about the arts, you big hypocrite!
Good point dear readers, good point.
I’m in between a rock and hard place on this one, because I believe it is important to celebrate our mothers, but not in the way that companies would have us do, like Hallmark, or social media would have us do, like Facebook and Instagram.
And it’s a challenge for sure – I admit that I took a selfie with my mom on Sunday. But then I started to think about it, and did some research. And as I mentioned above, I unraveled that Mother’s Day was first celebrated over a hundred years ago by one Anna Jarvis. She did this in memorial of her mother. You see friends, that memorial to Mother Jarvis was the first example of the compromise between sentiment and instant gratification.
You know how that quote which states that history is written by the victors? Well maybe the problem with Mother’s Day is not that people don’t respect it, but that they respect it too much. Whenever you make an idea and see it through to it’s conclusion, ie sharing it and having it shared without your involvement, then rules of engagement state it is no longer your idea. Anna Jarvis may have had the best intentions in the world, but when she came up with the idea to have a holiday for mothers, she probably didn’t anticipate that people would use that celebration to celebrate rather than focus on appreciation.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Mother’s Day is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, celebrate “Mother’s” whether that’s what our moms want or not.
What do you think? Have I finally gone over the edge? Leave some comments below! Otherwise, I’m out of theories for now, and the weekend is creeping up, so I’ll see you on Sunday with some other under-appreciated things.
Tim!
timotheories 