| | In this society, mothers have a few special days to laud their existence and importance. Mothers' Day is a day to celebrate motherhood and is primarily dedicated to those women who are parents, naturally. This holiday in May is all their own, not shared with fathers (Fathers' Day) or grandparents (Grandparents' Day) or trees (Arbor Day). Additionally, many families celebrate the birthdays of these mothers. Birthdays, just like Mothers' Day, place the celebrant as the center of attention, to be praised, thanked, and celebrated. Birthdays are celebrations that typically you don't have to share with another person (unless you decide to have a joint-party). For those who celebrate an annual gift-giving holiday sometime in the winter, that is a holiday which often times the entire family celebrates. At least for my Mom, she has another day of celebration: my birthday. Why are birthdays in this society centered around the person born? I didn't do any of the work involved--from planning to execution. I see my birthday as the complement to Mothers' Day. Thus, my Mom has four holidays where I have to produce some sign of loveappitude (love, appreciation, and gratitude). If Mom was an egalitarian person, perhaps she would throw me a bone and "donate" one of her holidays to back to the calendar with the rest of the non-holiday bunch. But Mom isn't and her soft power--primarily nagging and inflicting guilt--are very effective. So, thank you, Hallmark, for making my wallet go on a diet; and thank you, materlialism, for equating gift-giving with loveappitude.
So, what do I give Mom? Each year, Mothers' Day happens in the middle of the year with the remaining three holidays scrunched together in the tail-end of the year. I'm running out of photos that I typically cobble together and repackage in various medium--albums, posters, collages. That's been done. But Mom's tastes are too expensive for my budget. When Mom visited me in France for Turkey Day on year, we went to the Galleries Layfayette to visit Louis Vuitton. Spending hours at the boutique and seeing the exorbitant prices and the hordes of tourists who were primarily from Eastern Europe and from Asia, our ideas of fun were not congruent. I can't afford that nor would I want to splurg on that. So what tangible item do I give a person that I can't afford? And how do I vary the gifts between now and Xmas? Blaming "culture" will not resolve my double problem of a lack of money and a lack of ideas; but blaming our skimpy salaries is very therapeutic.
[Sidenote: I decided to buy Mom a bouquet of flowers < http://products.proflowers.com/flowers/JoyfulBouquet-41213?viewpos=12&trackingpgroup=iri&ref=organicgglbrand&pagesplit= > and some perfume from Yves Saint Laurent < http://www.yslbeautyus.com/womens-fragrance/c36/index.html >. Apparently, there is a hierarchy of perfume: eau de toillette, eau de cologne, and eau de parfum. I opted for the more concentrated choice - eau de parfum. So I bought four different versions that I think she never tried before but I hope she'll like at least one of them: Opium, Elle (Her or She in English), Nu, and Cinema. Secretly, I'm hoping that she doesn't enjoy the Opium perfume too much for I'd be mortified if I got Mom hooked on Opium.]
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| | Posted 10/21/2009 1:35 AM - 2 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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