This Tribute [click to read] in World Magazine should bring to mind many of our own Mothers and Wives. In so many ways they have 'shown us the trail.'
"For Jean Belz, my early naïveté was actually on target; there really was never anything special about such thinking. Isn't that the way every creature of God is supposed to see things? Mom just kept sensing God's calling in every detail of her life—and then kept responding to that call as faithfully as she possibly could. But she knew it also took God's enabling even to come up with a faithful response."
...and I Talk About Mine!
Those of us who had exceptional Mothers knew very well that that was a strong qualification for leadership. It got me thinking about my own 'normal' childhood.
My Mother worked in the engineering department of the Martin Company in Baltimore. During the war years she helped develop the seaplanes that were used in the Pacific. When we were kids Mom still pointed out cool looking airplanes. She raised five children -- all different. My two brothers are NASA engineers. My sisters are talented people who have had interesting careers as well.
Mom was there first. When she showed up at the Martin Company to crunch numbers for airplane designers she flatly refused to make coffee for the men. This truth is lived out in my own life -- I make my own coffee.
She must have been pretty good. When I was born the head of the department called her to beg her to come back. As the story goes, Mom took the call with me in her lap. No, she decided, she had a new project on her hands. As a child I did my best to keep her hands full. My spelunking brother claims that he was the dirtiest kid in our family. He forgets my early childhood attraction to mud.
When we were homeschooling my daughter she expressed the sentiment that she wished she'd done that with us. People just didn't do that in the 1950's though. The 'experts' knocked you out to deliver the kid, sent the Dad home and then insisted that educators were better equipped to prepare little minds for the future.
The problem is that Mom had already taught me the complex English language and actually set me up with her old Underwood typwriter. She said I wrote little stories... sort of like primitive blogging.
I drew pictures too. I was pretty handy with a #2 pencil on the back of old medical forms provided by my Cardiologist Aunt. I remember fun summer afternoons when Mom put out the construction paper on the picnic table out back. We had a great time building little paper houses and assembling little villages.
Mom loved to teach complex concepts with illustrations. Once after we'd all had pie for dessert, she took the remaining piece and kept cutting it in half to show that [theoretically] it would be possible to continue to divide the remaining half in half again... forever!
Her 'normal' pie cutting routine was just as amazing. Since there where seven of us, Mom sliced the pie into seven pieces... measuring the slices by eye and none of us was ever short changed in the distribution of pie.
Our family was especially good at killing small appliances. When Mom's mixer died she didn't run out and get a new one. Mom set us up as a stirring team and we learned the old fashioned way of mixing up batter. The kitchen was a physics lab and Mom delighted in the lessons it provided.
When the last child left home, Mom taught physics labs at Howard Community College. Her practical knowledge and Mothering skills were put to good use there. During the Iranian hostage standoff she befriended a yound Iranian student who was understandably afraid and confused by the whole situation. Her friendship certainly helped this young man through a difficult time and taught us that we should always remember that the world is primarily populated by beautiful individuals, not idealogies.
There is not enough space to tell all the things she taught us. Perhaps her greatest lesson was mastered when I courted my children's Mother. It was Mom who first taught me what an amazing person a woman can be!
What an honor it was to be her apprentice!
Along the Appalachian Trail at Jarman's Gap. My children have an amazing Mother too!
No comments:
Post a Comment