Celebrating Mothers!

Mothers allow life to flow through them. Whether a woman has consciously asked to become a vessel for life, or was unwittingly caught off guard, or violently entered and, and, due to varied circumstances, had to succumb to growing within her womb what may be a frightful reminder of rape, babies are born or found in want of a mother by a woman (usually) who wants to be one and scoops that babe to her breast. 

Babies are life's yearning for itself said Kahlil Gibran. Nurturing a life is the task offered. Women (and men) cannot help but want to support new life to thrive. Distractions, poverty, illness, whether mental or physical, get in the way, but I believe that children, for the most part, highlight our instincts to make sure the next generation thrives. We do the best we can.

Children grow and become adults who beget more children. Insidiously, we have been distracted from the all important task of truly nurturing life and find ourselves in an environmental crisis on Planet Earth. Here we are, trying not to destroy ourselves as we destroy everything around us with our super smart brains and ZERO spiritual intelligence. Our hubris is so big, it's as water is to fish. We are blind to the fact that we're steeping in stupidity, avarice, arrogance, and greed, but we are.

Friday, my cozy and privileged Nor Cal family and I took BART to San Francisco to see the musical "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The Roald Dahl classic children's book has been updated and rearranged to provide a timely message for us all. Scintillating singers and daring dancers bond to make this musical magical.

What DO we do with gluttony? Ask Augustus Gloop who falls into the Chocolate River he's trying to drink-up. What do we do about entitlement and acquisitiveness? Ask Veruca Salt who, in this version, is a Russian bad nut (Verushka!), who wants everything and she wants it NOW! Her father is a slippery-slope-soto-voce-deal-making sinister tycoon in furs, also accustomed to getting his way. How do we deal with those who take what they want and damn the consequences? Ask Violet Beauregard. In this case, poor Violet is not a shrinking violet, but rather a grab and go gal who despite Mr. Wonka's protestations grabs the gum that is not yet ready for consumption. She is 'Queen of Pop' and just HAS to keep chewing.... until she does pop, when the blueberry pie dessert portion of the great-tasting three-course dinner flavored-gum ball goes wrong, causing her to swell to the proportions and color of a gigantic blueberry until she  *pops*. Spectacularly, she pops, splattering her cheering-her-on-disregard-the-rules-father. She pops like one of her own bubblegum bubbles. The fourth child, Mike TV, is addicted to screens, hand held or big. His mother is also addicted, but to drink.

Little Charlie and his Grandpa Joe are the last men standing after all the other kids who've won golden tickets to tour the Chocolate Factory and their chaperones have been eliminated for cheating or not following Wonka's rules. There is magic afoot in the story. Wonka and Charlie Bucket are alike in their zeal to create new and wonderfully workable solutions to problems in the world. Love and Kindness prevail in their set of values. May it always be so. (Personally, my hope for our world is dimming.)

Not sure we're gonna survive ourselves in fifty or even twenty years. At the rate of species extinction, perhaps we have thirty years MAX to turn things around before the Luna Option* is tried as last resort.

Is our human nature to be greedy, like Augustus? Not sure about that. What is it we really want? Is our human nature to be self-important and entitled, like Veruka? Seems that way, doesn't it? Is our human nature to be altruistic, generous, and kind, like Charlie? Hah! Where did you get THAT notion? Not visible anywhere in our leaders 'round the world, is it? 

Charlie is kind. Charlie is self-deprecating and wants to share with his parents and grandparents whatever wee bit of joy he finds in the world. Where'd he come from? Where will he land, now that he's been made part-owner and collaborator on Wonka's factory and knows how to work the Great Glass Elevator? Will fame and fortune spoil Charlie Bucket?

One of the most thrilling scenes of the evening for me was looking sideways to witness nearly ten-year-old Grandie Devlyn as she devoured the eye candy of the musical's grandeur. Clearly, she enjoyed the spectacle.

Last October, for my birthday, Mark got primo tickets for the four of us in the center of the Orchestra row J! Spectacular seats! Not so close that we were drenched in flop sweat from the dancers, but not far away enough to warrant opera glasses. We could see the actors' facial expressions! 

Before the curtain swooped up with opening strains of the overture, Devlyn and I had a chance to visit with some of the musicians tuning up in the pit. We counted three Saxophones, two Clarinets, six Guitars, three Keyboards, one Violin, Cello and Bass, four Brass Horns, and a Drum Set. She knew by name quite a few of the instruments. Thrilling to see them up close and personal and have musicians light up as Miss D showed interest.

Glad to be a mama of two and Gra'Moose to Miss D! Glad I had a choice when I was nineteen not to become a mom, then choice-fully conscious when I was ready for Life to flow through me at twenty-eight. SO glad to have (finally) chosen the perfect mate for all this magic to happen! I am very very lucky and grateful.

For all of us humans, male and female, there is a creative womb space where creativity dwells. Whether we design and build musical instruments, clothing, mechanical tools, or write stories, sing, dance, creatively support friends, or become parents, necessity is the mother of invention. Each of us is mother to some idea, artifact or creation We're all artists fashioning our lives. Pure Imagination, sings Willy Wonka.

Happy Mother's Day.

* Luna is the name for Earth's colonized moon after Earth dies in a Sci-Fi short story I wrote.