Monday, May 12, 2008 Mercado: Mother dear, mother fairest By Ram Mercado First Person
MAY 11 was Mother's Day, a date commemorating the greatness of all mothers.
It's also in remembrance of all the girls we've loved before.
I have yet to read any paid ad from our usual Pampanga politicians extolling their mothers on this day. But I found fervent greetings in observance of the birth anniversary of Brother Felix Manalo, founder of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).
I understand the solicitude of some local politicians as they remember the natal day of the INC founder; after all it was his church that largely put them to power.
Our politicians do greet the Archbishop of San Fernando on his birthday but not with the same fervor and fanfare that they showed the INC ministers.
Apu Cetu, of course, understands the situation. Could it be that his blessings are apparently not as "miraculous and potent" as the INC's "basbas?"
Mothers should have been quite happy for the attention and display of affection by their husbands and children last Sunday.
I speak of the wives from the "A" and "B" socio-economic groups whose families were aware of and had put significance to Mother's Day and who can afford to buy flowers for their Tanging Ina.
The poor folk and the underprivileged only knew of Mother's Day in TV and radio talk programs. Any celebration or organized affair honoring the harassed mothers was unheard of or beyond their means.
Slightly provoked they can shout "Tang Ina mu rin!"
We love our mothers and the memories of the dear departed. The average mother, "the holiest thing alive" according to Coleridge, is often taken for granted. When was the last time you remembered?
In many western countries the elderly are sent to hospices or nursing homes. Here, they preserve the core value of a strong family even in their senile condition.
That seldom happens in the country; and not likely to happen in Pampanga. While developed countries have the legendary problem of the mother-in-law, in Pampanga the problem is the father-in-law.
Even then, even if the old man turns to be "ulyanin", he is never considered as suffering from Alzheimer's, a disease popularized here by City Hall executive Mark Sison.
Emerson insists that "men are what their mothers made them."
Certainly, she was our first teacher, nurturer, and protector. The lessons she taught, the little wisdom she instilled in us infused our thoughts in adult life and guided us in our growing years.
Her virtues we can always summon as we face life's predicaments.
This love for the mother is a universal truth. You will find it in the tattoos imprinted on male convicts who proudly display an "Ina Ko" circumscribed by a heart and a pierced dagger.
It is never "Papa Ko" although a funeral song about "O My Papa" accompanies the dead man's procession to his grave.
"What is home without a mother?" is the title of a poem by Alice Hawthorne. The line strikes the painful verity of a loveless household with a missing mother.
Children grow up to be matured adults who recall images of My Mother like Ann Taylor wrote: "Who ran to help me when I fell,/ and would some pretty story tell,/ or kiss the place to make it well?"
Lincoln pays tribute to God's greatest creature thus: "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."
We have all our own concepts of an ideal mother. Mine is the woman who sang the Magnificat. "My heart praises the Lord...from one generation to another...because of the great things the Mighty God had done for me...he show mercy to those who honor him...
On Sunday we paid homage to mothers' role in human destiny. She is God's co-creator for His purpose. "For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." (Wallace)
A mother is more powerful than a military general, according to Joaquin Miller:
"The bravest battle that ever was fought/ shall I tell you where and when?/ On the maps of the world you will find it not;/ It was fought by the mothers of men."
Mrs. Hillary Clinton, a mother, is fighting the battle of her life in a near end-game for the presidential nomination.
Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is doing battle against her enemies and against massive poverty.
Two mothers, both lawyers in the capitol are fighting the battles of Governor Eddie Panlilio.
Three women, all with children by a randy macho friend, are fighting for equal rights and privileges through dacion en pago.
"But all the three have reason to be grateful when the man in their lives takes time to share and let them know by his regular acts sustenance and scheduled romance that the women are in his thoughts and that he provides," he proudly said. He celebrated Mother's Day in advance, on May 9 for his first girl; on May l0 for the second; and May ll for the third mistress. On May l2, he will pleasure his real wife, "for compliance purposes," he said, then crooned a line in Impossible Dreams, "to give when there is no more to give."
I convey my special Mother's Day wishes to Ms. Vivian Dabu and Ms. Ma. Eliza Velez, both working mothers, reportedly with a child a piece on this wonderful day.
Lest we forget, Mother's Day even in this global climate change is nine-months after father's night.
