Thoughts on a Mothers Day’s Eve
Sooo, it’s Mothers’ Day’s Eve.
Tomorrow is the day most beloved by restaurateurs, florists and purveyors of assorted merchandise. But for many mothers it’s a very different sort of day, for those mothers whose children have become estranged, for those mothers who for one reason or another, found themselves unable to keep their children. For those mothers whose children find them unworthy of respect or of affection.
Many of us have not been great sons or daughters taking for granted that incredibly special relationship until it’s too late. And then, of course, it’s too late. I know I certainly should have been a much better son. I always knew my mother loved me very much but I did not appreciate all the sacrifices she made and all that she endured to make me, as far as my better points go, the person I became.
It’s not easy to be a parent, and a “good parent” is an ideal that is too complex to easily attain. Many of the best parents are those most resented, at least for a while, by children who are incapable of understanding that forming a human being capable of confronting the challenges he or she are sure to face requires difficult decisions and that in seeking to make them, mistakes are not infrequent, and that such mistakes are all too often exaggeratedly taken out of context. But parents and those of their children who, rather than avoid parenthood become parents, are links in a chain as old as our species.
On this Mother’s Day my heart goes out to those mothers, who like so many fathers, find themselves ignored, or disrespected, or alone. Or who will merely engage in introspection on how much better they could have performed their sacred missions.
It’s a day for celebration; yes! And for recognition in many cases. But also for reflection, introspection, forgiveness and empathy.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2025; all rights reserved. Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.
Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen). Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Previously, he chaired the social studies and foreign language departments at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York. He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review available at Substack.com; an intermittent commentator on radio and television; and, an occasional contributor to diverse periodicals and publications. He has academic degrees in political science (BA, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina), law (JD, St. John’s University, School of Law), international legal studies (LL.M, the Graduate Division of the New York University School of Law) and translation and linguistic studies (GCTS, the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta, cosmology and cosmogony. He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.