Posts
Thursday, May 8
the greatest generation
Yesterday was good -- a whole day spent with my mom and Katy Claire for a little advance Mother's Day celebration. We decided not to party on the actual Sunday holiday this year, because the last time we did something stupid like that was after Easter at Eola, where we were so tired after church that we felt less like having a big roast beef dinner and more like shoving eggs down each other's throats so that we could SUFFOCATE INTO MERCIFUL SLEEP.
So there we were yesterday, just us girls, all three generations of us. It was the first time the feminine side of our family had all been out alone like that. And the time together sharpened the similarities and contrasts between us, as time together is wont to do.
I know there are things that my mother is glad she passed on to me, and I know there are things I'm sure she wishes had never swum into my inlet of the gene pool. I know these things because I feel the weight of them myself, as I slowly grow older and find myself taking more steps in her shoes, even if they are shoes I said I would never take off the shelf.
Growing up in the shadows that Steinem and Friedan left on the world, it is easy for females my age to approach life as a person first and a woman second. But the unexpected arrival of Katy has heightened my awareness of what I pass on to my children — not just as a parent — but as a mom, a wife, a girl. I have a rich heritage of women to draw from. I also have the desperate prayer that some of our feminine sins and sorrows and struggles will stop with me -- the hope that her life can find a horizon far beyond mine.
People talk about the Greatest Generation, and I am grateful for the work done by those who have gone before me, including the sacrificial work of my mother. But looking at both her and Katy's face yesterday, I saw that the greatest generation is always the one that's happening right now, if only because it is not the sum of the things that have already been written. It is the change that can possibly be.
So there we were yesterday, just us girls, all three generations of us. It was the first time the feminine side of our family had all been out alone like that. And the time together sharpened the similarities and contrasts between us, as time together is wont to do.
I know there are things that my mother is glad she passed on to me, and I know there are things I'm sure she wishes had never swum into my inlet of the gene pool. I know these things because I feel the weight of them myself, as I slowly grow older and find myself taking more steps in her shoes, even if they are shoes I said I would never take off the shelf.
Growing up in the shadows that Steinem and Friedan left on the world, it is easy for females my age to approach life as a person first and a woman second. But the unexpected arrival of Katy has heightened my awareness of what I pass on to my children — not just as a parent — but as a mom, a wife, a girl. I have a rich heritage of women to draw from. I also have the desperate prayer that some of our feminine sins and sorrows and struggles will stop with me -- the hope that her life can find a horizon far beyond mine.
People talk about the Greatest Generation, and I am grateful for the work done by those who have gone before me, including the sacrificial work of my mother. But looking at both her and Katy's face yesterday, I saw that the greatest generation is always the one that's happening right now, if only because it is not the sum of the things that have already been written. It is the change that can possibly be.
0 comments:
Post a Comment