Honor Mothers
On a meaningful day treated as a meaningless event.
Anna Jarvis created Mother’s Day in 1908 to honor the “free service” mothers provide to humanity. Her mother, Ann, was an activist who fought to lower infant mortality, improve hygiene, and provide medical care for families in Appalachia.
During the Civil War, Ann cared for soldiers and families from both sides while aiming for peace. She was a revolutionary who led with love.
Anna envisioned a holiday of personal and heartfelt gratitude, rather than buying commercial gifts, but ended up spending the rest of her life fighting against the commercial practices that changed the meaning of the holiday she created.
She was a human with an honorable purpose. Men and women, with the sole purpose of making a profit, turned her holiday into a commercial event and exported it worldwide.
Mother’s Day, on the second Sunday of May, has been adopted as a standard by over 80 countries worldwide, including my birth country, Brazil.
We are not consumers, we are humans.
Let’s honor our mothers the way Anna intended, with heartfelt gratitude, as humans. It’s time to return to who we are.
That’s a long way to say…
Mom, there is no gift today! As always… You know me.
You gave me the gift of life, and there is nothing I can give you that will ever match that. You made your own gift, that’s how good you are. You win!
I’m just grateful for the life you gave me, for the love you poured into me, and for the sacrifices you went through for me, but most importantly, it’s an honor to be your son and to call you my Mother.
We have everything already. That’s the gift.
I love you — I always have, and I always will.
Your son,
Di
Artist credit
Lee Krasner
Polar Stampede, 1960