This is a brief paean in honor of all Mothers.
Mothers deserve to be celebrated every day, especially those who ever shared the spirit reflected in this marvelous poem, which I found on the LinkedIn page of a friend. She penned it on the occasion of her son, who celebrated his twentieth birthday yesterday. It is worth your time and reflection.
My mother died when I was 21. Seldom does a day go by when I don’t think of her, and long for the conversations we never had, when I might have grown enough to appreciate her bountiful wisdom.
She did give me a book in the last year of her life. I keep it within arm’s reach of my desk. She inscribed the inside front cover to her “… Belovèd Son and Second-born”.
She encircled a quatrain on page 44 with a confession that she “Couldn’t resist encircling this!”
The passage:
You can lead a horse to water,
But you cannot make him drink.
You can send your boy to college,
But you cannot make him think.
She gave me the book two months after I had returned to college to repeat the second semester of my sophomore year. [Those of you who read yesterday’s newsletter will find news of this stumble especially enlightening.]
So today, a special, special Mother’s Day to all you who are raising boys who give promise of being eternal knuckleheads. Remember that this too shall pass. Hopefully!
See you tomorrow!
And, as always, thanks for reading!
Richard
