March is Women’s History Month. This year’s theme – “writing women back into history” – seeks to properly recognize the contributions of women by increasing awareness of their works so that today’s younger generations can easily find female role models in any field of study.
I think this campaign is a worthy effort and one that will, hopefully, have far-reaching impact as the brilliance and perseverance of women artists, mathematicians, explorers, scientists, athletes and others is brought to light. But, the project also made me wish there was some event to celebrate all the behind-the-scenes contributions that mothers make on a daily basis. Though I admire and appreciate all the breakthroughs of the individual women being honored by the National Women’s History Project, what about all the small miracles that women perform each day simply because that’s what mothers do?
I know we have Mother’s Day, but I’d love to see something that was less about flowers and breakfast in bed and more about truly acknowledging the incredibly important impact each mother has, not only within her own family, but on the world at large. American poet William Ross Wallace is most well-known for saying, “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rocks the world.” It may not seem that way when you look at the often unbalanced hierarchy of our world, but – ultimately – it is mothers who teach the children, who raise them up to be the men and women they will become. And, it is those men and women who will, once grown, guide all of humanity into the future.
So, this March, along with all the amazing women who have made incredible discoveries, performed stunning feats of physical prowess, made inroads into professional areas once off-limits to the “softer sex,” and done all manner of other newsworthy and notable things, I’d also like to acknowledge all the little, but no less important, things that mothers everywhere do each and every day. For, though we may not make headlines, we still have a very real and important impact on the world around us.
Painting by John Henry Twachtman, 1895
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Once upon a time, there was a real dog named Martha who inspired a seven year-old boy to ask, “Mom, if Martha ate alphabet soup, would she speak?” Luckily for children everywhere, that little boy’s mom was Susan Meddaugh. Her son’s imaginative query was the catalyst that inspired Susan to create the much-loved Martha stories about a dog who acquires the gift of gab when the letters from her soup wind up in her brain instead of her stomach.
Each of us has her share guilty pleasures – midnight snacks, midday naps, a chocolate stash – but few are as fun to share as reality TV. What other pastime lets you bond vicariously over the gory details of someone else’s life without the risk of being labeled a neighborhood gossip?