ban mother's day from church

ok, so it's a week after mother's day and this probably should have been posted earlier. at the same time, it will be another 51 weeks before it comes back around and that's plenty of time for church-goers to take note: for a LARGE number of people, mother's day SUCKS. you have women who long to be mothers and are incapable of conceiving a child. you have women who are mothers but they have lost a child. you have women who don't have a good relationship with their mothers. daughters without mothers, grandmothers who are widows and go home alone, women struggling to find a maternal presence or role and are left lacking. but will the oldest and youngest mothers among you please stand up? and please present your babies for dedication or your children for baptism.

for those of us who fall into any of those categories, please don't make us suffer anymore than we already do. mother's day takes an inordinate amount of energy on our part (should we choose to actually go to church or any neighborhood hallmark starting around april fool's day) to try to be happy and cheery and yay mother's day. even more so when no one even acknowledges how hard that day is for so many people.

granted, there are many women who delight in mother's day. there are many special things done for that occasion, and, if you have a wonderful mother you should find ways to honor her. but it's like valentine's day. do we really need to set a day apart to honor mom? shouldn't we be doing that everyday, multiple times a day? assuming, once again, that you have a mom you'd like to honor. (we do that a lot in church...assume...and put on the happy, cheery, yay face.)

incidentally, the same can be said for father's day, veteran's day, memorial day, and most holidays and special occasions. if we are going to acknowledge those occasions (and i'm not saying it's inherently bad that we do so), we need to acknowledge those for whom it's not a good day as well.