14

Today is the start of school for (I think most) kids in the USA today, and I always thought that it was ironic that my mother, (who wasn’t a morning person) always had to work on her birthday, which would have been today. I’m sure there were a few years where it landed on the weekend, but for the most part, that seemed to be the theme. While she was a good teacher and taught for most of her life, it always seemed weird to me that she had to change everything about her natural Circadian rhythm to accommodate public schools and Sunday morning church. She was always the first to stay up late with me for special occasions (like Moon eclipses and meteor showers) and the first who I remember empathetically explaining the whole “train yourself to be a morning person even though we aren’t” thing; we were both more night owls.

I wish that she could have had some time to retire, I’m sure that she’d have been able to move to a later night/later wake schedule (y’all, it was five am most days, even a eight or nine am alarm would have been a kindness) and well, who knows. Her plans for after she’d leave teaching included lots of things that happen after 5pm.

All in all, I think it’s ridiculous and unhealthy that we try to shove people into holes, and then grid them through said holes until they fit or die. This is a feature of late-stage capitalism that I hope we can kill before we open up again. People exist across a large spectrum; very few people easily fit into the 8am-5pm/wear a uniform or equivalent personality dampening attire paradigm.

But, my detest for what this corporate-centric society wants aside… my mom was pretty cool. She fought hard for us kids, and lots of other folks while she was here. I know that there are plenty of people that hold her memory (she was pretty popular though she had no idea), and her influence continues to be a positive force. That’s awesome, and I’m proud of her for creating that energy in the ~6 decades she had here.

She’s been physically gone for years, held close in the hearts and memories of her family and beyond. The world I hope we all are fighting to create (people not corporate centered/Consent Culture) would have been better for her too, and that realization is a gift I’m grateful to have.

Happy Birthday Mom, you’re awesome, it sucks I can’t call you on the phone.