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Who Is Your Guiding Light: a tribute to mothers

Dear Editor:

For over a year now I have wanted to write an article dedicated to “mothers.” After much research, I am going to try and do our mothers justice. This is to the mothers of all our readers. Some may think mothers are the most automated appliances in the household; I hope to show you mothers are much, much more — they are the landscape of our hearts.

I was watching a show called “Pass Time” the other night. The commentator always asks the guests if they want to say hello to anyone. Now this is a show with drag racers and these guys are the get-down-tough-and-dirty guys who build and race cars. Ninety five per cent of the time these guys always say “hi mom.” Have you ever watched the mixed martial arts programs? These guys have got to be the toughest on the planet! When asked by the commentator if they want to say hello to anyone, almost always it’s “mom.” What is it that identifies mom’s above all others?

George Washington was quoted saying, “my mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw… All I am, I owe to my mother.” What a beautiful compliment. John Wesley said, “My mother was the source from which I derived the guiding principles of my life.” I probably concur most of all with Abraham Lincoln who said about his mother, “God bless my mother, all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her,” words from a loving son.

I believe we need to show our children that we are less than perfect; no one is perfect. We all need to be given that second chance. To show someone we are not perfect is simply to admit we are human. Alice Walker said it best when asked about her mother, “yes Mother…I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.” I like Mark Twain who said about his mother, “my mother had a great deal of trouble with me but I think she enjoyed it.”

My wife, Lynne, has shown me while men seem to have more hobbies than they usually have time or money for, mothers never have time for themselves yet all the time for their children and families. Mothers are forever exhibiting unconditional love for their children, no matter what they do wrong; they are always loved, no strings attached. I feel mothers speak as loudly with their life as they do with their tongue.

DeWitt Talmage said of her mother, “Mother…that was the bank in which we deposited all our hurts and worries.” I know from observing my wife as a mother, oh how they worry for their children, never wanting any hurt to come their way. Audrey Hepburn as a mother said it very well, “the toughest part of motherhood is the inner worrying and not showing it.”

In closing, I know it is not easy being a mother; if it were, fathers would do it. I very much believe an old Jewish proverb that says, “God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.” At least that’s how I see it, the Old Operator.

Doug Thorson

The Old Operator