From Whence I Sprang

I come from a long line of strong women. My great-grandmother, Maria Corrigan Gleason lived to be 96.






Her daughter, my grandmother, Mary E.D. (Gleason) Farley lived to be 98.










If the model persists, my mother could live to be 100 and I might see 102. That’s a lot of years of mothering.

I checked the dictionary definition of bear as in “to bear a child.”
It’s synonymous with: Endure. Stand. Abide. Tolerate. Suffer.
A verb more appropriate to motherhood than “to have.” As in, “I have a child.”
You might as well be talking about an accessory, “I have a purse.”
Motherhood is way more than possession. Mystic Lake be damned, it's biggest crap shoot that anyone could embark upon.

MadgeWorld detests the old trick of using dictionary definitions, but here are a few transitive and intransitive definitions of the verb:
#1. To hold up; support. Ego bolstering included. “Good job!” Or the cool washcloth on a fevered head. Or hustling you to the bathroom in the nick of time when you’ve got the flu so you hurl into the toilet and not on the new sheets.
#2. To carry from one place to another. Transport. Can you say car pool. Swim lessons. Volleyball practice.
#3. To carry in the mind. Harbor. I’m not talking about a grudge. It’s the pleasant little images we visualize. Baby smiles. First steps. Throwing a temper tantrum in Target.
#4. To transmit at large. Relate. Bearing not just glad tidings—broadcasting news of your accomplishments. OK. Bragging. "You won’t believe this but. . . (insert good or bad news here).''
#5 To have as a visible characteristic. Does looking wiped out from lack of sleep count?
#6 To exert pressure, force or influence. I come from the Machiavellian theory of child rearing. Subtly, though, always subtly. Is offering a bribe for grades considered pressure or force?
#7. To endure something with tolerance and patience. At least 272 parent teacher conferences.
#8. To be accountable for. At least eighteen years and then some. . . . ''This is the Golden Valley Police Department. . .''
#9. To advance in a threatening manner. I never smacked anyone on the back of the legs with a broom handle for walking on the newly scrubbed floors. . . but I thought about it.
#10. To apply maximum effort and concentration. As in bear down. Nose blowing and butt-wiping included.

And finally #11. To give birth to. But the actual bearing is only the beginning. Motherhood is the single most exciting, joyful, frustrating, rewarding experience that life serves up.


It wouldn’t be a fake holiday without a real tribute to my own mother. (That's me, the bun in the oven. Before I started giving her fits.)
Mary Jane Farley Nagan. 80+ years old, but who is counting? Gorgeous, joyful, creative. Bore not just one, but ten of us. Buried two. She covers bear and all its synonyms: Stand. Abide. Tolerate. Suffer. But most of all, she endures. With only four of my own, I honestly don't know how she did it--without mood altering drugs and disposable diapers, no less.


Listening to: Have I told you lately that I love you. Van Morrison and the Chieftains
On the agenda: grubbing in the yard.