High noon, executive suite, New York City, 1917.
Al: So here’s the pitch – I’m seeing a Day to commemorate Mothers. Classy. World-wide kinda theme… There’s no one in the space, right? So we make it big, make it bold: Mother’s Day.
Vic: Nice… Love it, love it. Keep talking.
Al: So we get the biggies on board, right? Hallmark, Roadshow, Cadbury, Walmart, those guys that do roses….
Roger: Interflora?
Al: Right, right. Package this thing so it really pops. I’m seeing fluffy dressing gowns with matching ugg boots, hand-picked musical compilations for Mums, Jodi Piccoult going off, twin pack ‘Love Actually’ and ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ on blu ray…
Roger: Objection. They don’t exist yet.
Al: Details, details… You reckon we could get Ricky Martin to do a ‘Greatest Hits Souvenir Edition’? How about Buble? That guy must have something in the can…
Roger: Objection. They don’t exist yet either.
Vic: Roger, you’re bringing us down. This thing’s gonna make millions.
Al: Juice fountains? Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals?
Vic: Keep talkin’, keep talkin’….
Actually, that’s not the shocking truth about Mother’s Day, although it is kinda startling to consider that Australians spent about $1.36billion on Mothers Day gifts this week. Not that I begrudge anyone their ugg boots. (Got a pair myself.) It’s just that this week the Australian Government is likely to slash money from our overseas aid budget (worth around $5.2 billion spent on saving actual lives). And there are still 1.2 billion people on this planet living on less than $2 a day, not to mention elderly people struggling to afford a place in a nursing home and indigenous children who can’t read and… and… Sometimes gift giving in this country gets a little out of hand.
The truly shocking thing is that Mother’s Day has moved so far from its compassionate and activist origins. Mother’s Day was the brainchild of Anna Jarvis back in 1910; the idea went a bit viral, with President Woodrow Wilson declaring it an official day of celebration in 1918. Anna wanted to commemorate her mother, Ann Maria Jarvis, who set up Mothers Work Clubs in five cities to improve health and sanitation and clothe both Confederacy and Union soldiers. She was a bit of a radical who saw the potential of women to care not only for their own, but for people everywhere.
But the idea of a day for mothers didn’t actually originate with Anna.
The first official attempt to institute a Mothers Day was kicked around by Julia Howe Ward in 1872 and it wasn’t tocommemorate mothers at all. It was to mobilise mothers everywhere to unite for resolution of war. It was a political, pacifist movement that issued a proclamation calling on women from around the world to join together for peace. It failed to catch on but Anna Jarvis, who eventually succeeded in popularising Mother’s Day, was deeply influenced by these ideals.
Tragically, by the time Anna died in 1928 she had become deeply disillusioned by the Day she had inaugurated, believing that it had been totally taken over by commercial interest. She dissociated herself from it completely.
Motherhood is so sacred and so intensely special that I hardly dare suggest that the day celebrating it could be modified in any way. Totally honest? I love receiving those hand-made cards and carefully chosen gifts from my daughters. I love thinking about what to write on the card for my own Mum, who is awesome beyond measure. But like many things, maybe it doesn’t have to be entirely about us as individuals, either.
Maybe we could find room to think of mothers everywhere who are also nurturing children, only in refugee camps, in deserts, in suburban backyards struggling with disabilities and in countries where you can be paid less than a dollar a day to stitch clothing for eight hours. Maybe we could lift our gaze a little higher to take in a bit more of the sisterhood and use whatever resources we have to help lighten the load. Maybe we could heed that call to be women united around the world for peace. Maybe we can teach our children likewise. It’s not just about ending war. It’s about creating all the right conditions for justice.
To all my fellow mothers- I think you’re amazing. And I know that you’re probably already doing more than your little bit to re-ignite the original Mother’s Day vision. So let’s say it proud, hey? We are more than a soft target for pyjama marketing. As women, we’re a world-wide force for good.
Happy Mother’s Day.
** Disclaimer: I was complicit in the buying of a zebra-patterned one-sie pajama suit by my children as my Mother’s Day Gift. It was probably the funniest moment we had all day… but just so you know. I have a way to go with enforcing all my own ideas.
*Okay all you grammar Nazis out there: the apostrophe is where it is because the original Mother’s Day was to celebrate your own mother and it’s how Anna wanted it! But I acknowledge there are lots of other ways it’s done now.
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