Happy Mother’s Day!
Can I say this every day? One day out of 365/366 days a year, it is official to give gifts or family brunch or cook out. The officialdom speaks in high and low octaves, but I will continue to murmur under my breath “happy mother’s day” tomorrow and tomorrow, because I love being the mother for my sons.
The designated holidays are meant to bring the community a cohesive social stream to strengthen the national identity with commercial interests. How many bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates are sold this year? The cash register reports at the end of the weekend and it is compared to the expected and projected consumer index.
Someone posted in the Facebook that she grew up without the celebration of “Mother’s Day” according to the customs in Philippine. Holiday also has social and historical implications besides the commerce. Being crossroads from one culture to another, one may enjoy the multicultural experiences, but it can be also confusing in my opinion.
In the similar vein, I also grew up in South Korea devoid of glitzy gift giving on one particular day. The basic backdrop of cultural and traditional values retains even in the midst of glitzy fast moving highway life in the western hemisphere for decades. I don’t expect my son to spend time looking through windows of shops for me, because love and respect don’t hang in showcase windows. Difference isn’t indifference, but rather difference shines like a pearl in oyster shell.
So, if my moral value transcends the glitzy fast moving highway, why am I arrested by this institutionally condoned imposition framed in social loom with confusion and justification of being a “minority”?
In my opinion if we practice love, respect, honesty and kindness every day, every minute and everywhere to fellow beings without labels and without littering the environment, then every day is a fabulous mother’s day. Leaving a better world for our next generation is a lofty goal worth for the fight. Let’s go, girls! Happy Mother’s Day!!
yenna yi 