And don't forget to call your mother Sunday

If it weren’t for mothers, none of us would be here.

This is the weekend when everyone honors their mothers and moms in general. Usually that entails taking mom out to eat on the busiest restaurant day of the year, or giving her card telling her how wonderful she is, or getting her a gift (something that’s not related to the kitchen or house cleaning), or giving her flowers, or some combination of these.

According to a story I read this week, the woman who created Mother’s Day would cringe at any of this. Anna Jarvis just wanted something simple to recognize mothers since all the holidays pretty much were centered around men. Simple —wear a white carnation, visit your mother and maybe go to church, too. She organized the first Mother’s Day in 1908 at her church in West Virginia, then led a letter-writing campaign for it to be a holiday, which it became in 1914.

Naturally, businesses, companies and corporations took what was supposed to be a simple way of saying, “Thanks, Mom,” and turned it into a frenzied orgy of spending. Even back in those days, florists, candy makers, greeting card companies and anybody else who could get on the band wagon hopped aboard looking to make a nickel off dear old Mom.

It hasn’t gotten better through the last century. Like Easter, Christmas, Memorial Day and other days with special meanings, Mother’s Day has been co-opted and turned into an anything-for-a-buck occasion. Take Easter for example; it’s treated like Christmas Jr. with corporations pressing people to buy toys and goodies and shop, shop shop!

Mother’s Day was like that by the 1920s, and Anna Jarvis became the No. 1 critic of the day she’d created, but that others stole.

I guess I’m being curmudgeonly, or just becoming grumpy in my late middle-age, because I agree with Anna Jarvis. Like everything, Mother’s Day is too commercialized. And those doing the commercialization try to make us feel guilty if we don’t spend a ton of money on gifts, cards, flowers, candy, restaurants and anything else they want us to buy. Sometimes, I wonder what their mothers think of them.

You can show your mother how much you love and appreciate her without adding to corporate profit lines. Taking moms out for a special dinner isn’t all that bad, I suppose (especially if it’s at a local, non-chain place, which, I must admit, is what we have planned this weekend). It’s simple for everyone in the family. Of course, preparing a meal for your mom with some of her favorite dishes, is a great way to give her a break and show appreciation.

Instead of buying mass-produced greeting cards, write your mom a special note. And I mean write, not just a text or an email saying “LV U 4EVR.” Hand-written notes and letters are becoming a lost art, yet they can be much more meaningful and from the heart than a card a thousand other moms also will be getting. Giving her a note you wrote or a card you made yourself is unique, something that’s for her and her alone.

As for flowers, well, folks usually buy them just for special occasions, and while folks ought to let their moms know they appreciate them every day, I guess flowers are OK for Mother’s Day. Of course, getting your mom flowers or plants that she can set out in a flower bed or other landscaping could be a good idea (and helping her plant them wouldn’t hurt, either). Maybe even making her a flower bed or garden spot would be a good idea. Or, giving her a tomato plant or other vegetable plant that can grow in a patio pot would be a gift that would keep on giving through the summer.

Along those lines, something you make for mom would be a good gift.

Remember how much she adored your macaroni art from grade school, and those popsicle-stick picture frames with pictures of you?

You might want to make something a little more sophisticated, but still simple and heartfelt.

Of course, the main thing —whether simple and homemade, or store-bought and fancy —is to let your mom know you appreciate her.

After all, moms do so much for us throughout our lives and want to see us succeed in whatever we do. Even when they may irritate us, or even aggravate us, they’re still our moms. Let them know you love them because, after all, if it wasn’t for mothers none of us would be here.

I love you, Mom, and miss you.