Rant #2,650: Mother Freedom

This weekend, on Sunday, is one of the holiest days of the year, a day that even the pandemic cannot put a damper on.
 
On that day, we celebrate Mother’s Day, and the day is as sacred as the ladies that we honor on this holiday.
 
Paranoia did not grip our celebration of this holiday last year, at least for my family.
 
We honored my wife, my mother and my sister during the special day last year, and we will do so again this year.
 
The media is really playing up the fact that some families simply trashed the past year altogether, for fears that any close meeting with other family members would result in something of a “spreadathon” of the virus.
 
Now, these families are all of a sudden being trumpeted as they meet up with loved ones for the first time in over a year.
 
There was one right here in my own environs, hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris and widely covered by the media, where dozens of families met up with mainly their parents and grandparents after a year of coronavirus “captivity.”
 
I really have to wonder about these families, who were made so paranoid by the media that they basically trashed a year and only now are rekindling their relationships with their close loved ones, but I guess in this case, “to each his own” has to be the mantra, and if these families felt that this distance was necessary, so be it.
 
Sure, my family took precautions during the past year, but when it comes to close family, we saw them as we normally do, to a certain extent.
 
When they were infected, we stayed the hell away from them, and funny, my wife, my son, my mother and myself never were infected, so we must have done something right over the past year-plus … but in spite of odds not in our favor, we tried to stay paranoid free.
 
So this all leads up to the fact that Sunday is Mothers Day, and we are going to celebrate the ladies that are moms, and celebrate and honor them like we always do, pandemic or no pandemic.
 
Here is what I wrote in Rant #2,371 about the day, dated May 10, 2019, so it was written several months before we had to worry about coronavirus and social distancing, and staying away from close family members:
 
“How can you not celebrate those that gave birth to you, that decided to sacrifice their bodies for nine months to bring you into this world?
 
Sure, the fun is in the getting there, but once there, moms go through plenty to have us, so I salute all the moms out there, because they deserve it.
 
My wife certainly deserves all the plaudits she is going to get from myself and our son, and my mom deserves plaudits too--and she has plenty of battle scars to show what she want through--from myself and my sister.
 
I have heard numerous stories of how impossible I was as a little kid, how I was truly "Larry the Menace," into everything and completely unstoppable.
 
My mom went through lots of physical episodes too when she had me, but it was my time, and I guess in my own way, I took advantage of the situation entirely without really realizing what I was doing.
 
I have heard all the stories, about me breaking away from her, running into the middle of traffic on a busy street, and cars screeching to a halt every which way so that they wouldn't hit me; I have heard all the stories about me being into everything, discovering the world, and making my mother absolutely beside herself, but the best story is the shopping story.
 
My mother took me shopping in probably mid to late 1959. She was very obviously pregnant with my sister, and as was my pattern, I must have caused an uproar in the store, doing things and getting into people's hair.
 
Finally, my mother found everything that she wanted and was waiting on the checkout line, and an older woman, standing behind her on the line, had experienced my acting up.
 
She said to my mother, looking at me, "And you're going to have another after THIS?" and yes, the emphasis was on the word "this," meaning me.
 
My mother completed her purchase, probably ran home with me--she did not drive at the time--and cried the rest of the afternoon.
 
And then my sister came, and I was the "big brother," and I calmed down quite a bit.
 
My sister was no walk in the park either, but I guess we both turned out pretty well.
 
Just next week, I celebrate my daughter's birthday, and I remember the day she came into the world so vividly, but she was a piece of cake compared to the little boy who came into my wife and my life seven years later.
 
Our son was very much like me, into everything, and as a little kid, he loved to walk behind his stroller and yes, break away from us on occasion, but what he would do is that he would hide where all the clothes were hung in department stores, and it was very difficult to find him.
 
It was all my wife could do to stop from exploding, literally, but we got through that phase and right now, we have gotten through other phases with him, and he is a good fellow.
 
And yes, his mom is very proud of his accomplishments. They might seem small to some, but to his mom and I, some of them have been monumental.
 
So to my wife, I wish her the happiest of Mothers Days.
 
She deserves it.”
 
So there you have it.
 
What I wrote two years ago still shines bright today, even though the world is such a different place to live in today than it was two years ago.
 
My family and I have never let this scourge stop us, and although we have taken the necessary precautions--or what we believe were the necessary precautions--to keep us safe, we have tried to stay away from the paranoiac side of things, even though the media has seemed to want you to jump into that pool of uncertainty and almost drown in it rather than swim in it, if you get my drift.
 
Happy Mothers Day to all, and continuing this tradition of celebrating moms demonstrates that the coronavirus can and has wiped out so many things, but it isn’t strong enough to knock out our celebration of motherhood.
 
No way, no how.
 
Have a great weekend, a great holiday, and I will speak to you again on Monday.