The pun is intended. Moreover, it is purposeful because mum’s not the word anymore, the fact that Earth’s being the primary mother of all of us is out in the open, it cannot be kept or ignored as a well-hidden secret.
Our relationship with our mothers vary from person to person but fundamentally it follows a well-trodden path: a dance of dependence and independence, sometimes we twirl around each other in nurturing cycles and sometimes we prowl around each other in abrasive steps. And when we give birth to our children, the dance continues on, albeit in step to another tune.
Each newborn knows their mother as the mother, not knowing that each birth mothers give is also a novel level of being for them as well. As children, we begin and most of the time stay ignorant about who they were, what their hopes and dreams were about their own lives, what their life conditions and circumstances were before they become our mothers. We mostly do not know our parents as the persons they were before they become our parents. In that sense, we are in the same age. Their parenthood begins with us, no matter how many children they have before us.
The same ignorance we, as humankind, have about our primary mother –if you like Earth, Gaia, Dunya—as well. We start our life on the world without knowing its previous stages, its intended level of being. We just want to live as we like on her, in her, through her –like most of the children born out of a womb. We mostly choose to stay in our adolescence, even in our adulthood and parenthood, preferably until we die — by taking, using and sometimes abusing, exploiting the very resources that make us alive.
What about making this Mother’s Day a little bit different than the previous ones? Let’s imagine that she is not our mother but a person that we want to know more about. Let’s introduce new steps to our collective dance. And it does not matter if your mom is not around anymore; life is full of moms. What am I saying? Mom’s the world–either as a planetary or physical womb.
Shall we grow up and dance?