Mother's Day

Recently, my brother, Charles, pointed out that Mother's Day was started by a peace activist named Julia Ward Howe. She wanted it to be Mother's standing up to stop war (the Civil War in this case), but she failed to get it going because she kept getting distracted by her other social reform activities and lost focus on Mother's Day. The idea hung around, though, and years later Anna Jarvis, who also had anti-war feelings, pushed it as a day when Mother's would perform service as a way of honoring their mothers. After she pushed the day through Congress and really got it going she fell into fits of depression over its commercialization. I don't know how she felt about it when Woodrow Wilson, as he made it official, encouraged mothers whose sons had died in WWI to put a flag in their windows in their honor. He saw it as a day when Mothers would honor their war dead, hardly an anti-war event. But now we get it as a day to buy, Buy, BUY something for momma. Cards, flowers, diamonds, pottery, cars, Ipods and everything else. "If you LOVE your momma, you just HAVE to buy her my [insert name of cheap, overpriced merchandise] to show her your undying love!"

Our ward used to present a single carnation to the women in our ward on Mother's Day. That was nice - carnations have come to symbolize Mothers. I have to admit that it was me that changed it for our ward. I was assigned to buy the flowers one year and it just seemed a little small to get one single flower. So I asked if I could get something a little better and I was given a budget. I bought 4-5 oz. (quarter-pound) chocolate bars for all the mothers, and I noticed that they were well received. Very well received! Every year since I've purchased more chocolate bars and all our women are fat, happy, and well honored. This year, though, I was working overtime on the census and I just didn't see how I could go around buying chocolate bars (it usually takes several stops to get enough of the big bars). So I stopped by Sam's Club and bought boxes of "Jumbo" size Hershey bars, which are only about 2.5 ounces. When I got them home, I was informed by a woman in our ward that those little bars just wouldn't do. I'd raised the bar and it would not be well received to lower it again. New, bigger, bars were purchased and Saturday morning I stopped at Sam's to return the little Jumbo Hershey bars. Yes, the tradition continues. Today, all our women will feel the warmth of our love melting like chocolate on their tongues.

BTW, we usually have the young men pass the bars to the women at the conclusion of sacrament meeting. For some reason we have to get quite a few more choc. bars than there are women in our ward. I suspect the boys feel our love melting on their tongues, too.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! And may this day be like chocolate for you.