Memories of Mom...

Memories of Mom: Boy was I mad. I couldn’t watch my cartoons for weeks as a mere lad of just 9 years old (when all we had at home as kids was the tv). I still remember whining about it and my Mom reassuring me calmly that I’ll live without them for a little while longer. She tuned in every day to those Nixon impeachment hearings while cracking open her poached egg on a little egg holder cup and sipping her coffee she made after her whistling pot of boiling water was ready for pouring. After all, she was sacrificing her “Days of Our Lives” soap operas so I’m sure I could make the sacrifice too. Right? She also reassured me, in subtle ways, that what I was watching on that television in 1973 was something important - something of historical significance - something that we should all understand - as if it would be relevant to us again one day. I could not have possibly understood what she was implying at that age but I “felt”, in my gut, that she was right and I needed to sit through some of it and watch the Watergate hearings with her. Looking back, watching those hearings with my mother, I realize how much it shaped me and my interests. In the years that would follow, I would be fascinated with politics, current events and non-fiction documentaries and readings; and of course PBS. She and I would have had a lot to talk about had she been around to watch the current impeachment hearings with me this past week. Just as then, I would have had a lot of questions for her and as always, she would answer them and tell me all about it. Everything my Mom did was for a purpose; slowly showing me the way to understanding the world around me and my place in it. So I guess the moral of the story is, if you have children 8+, don’t worry if you think they’ll be bored and uninterested in watching history unfortunately unfold again. Show you’re interested and subtly introduce it to them and answer their questions the best you can. They’ll thank you too one day in a Facebook post, and maybe even in person, many years later with gratitude for exposing them to how governments, the law and the world really works. Thanks Mom. 💕🙏