Banner KennethENorton.com - Photo by Kenneth E. Norton

Click image to be directed to the most recent episode and for the List of the Scent of Light episodes in the Archive

(Photo by Kenneth E. Norton)

Scent of Light Episode - First

by Ken Norton

Mother's Day

Broadcast May 13, 2018

Mp3 Player

The audio file above is the spoken word recording without background music provided to Radio KOWS 92.5 FM broadcast of the Scent of Light episode for insert into the Radio Spotlight Magazine with host Andre' Marc.

Transcript

I am glad to join you and our listeners for Today's Show, Andre. My name is Ken Norton and on this 5-minute segment of the Radio Magazine I will share my discerning of Mother's Day. Of course, I think of my mother on this day and there are many cards and gifts advertised to express these feelings of love and appreciation. Mother was my first other after the umbilical cord was cut, and I was so dependent upon her. I must have received lots of attention through touches and cooing and kisses and hugs. I feel fortunate that I was not orphaned or abused and was able to experience this loving and nurturing of my mother in the security of a home provided for by my father. Already this thought brings up a pain associated with mother, the loss of her, and before, the labor of birth itself.

My mother was in charge of religion in the family. She was born into an Irish Catholic Family in Chicago and appreciated the strength the Church gave her family. The Church even called itself Holy Mother Church. I would become an altar boy and educated at Catholic schools through high school to prepare me for leaving the family home to have a middle class Catholic American start in finding my way in the world .

However, Mother's Day had a more than a sentimental meaning of Mother for Julia Ward Howe, the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. She also wrote the first Proclamation of Mother's Day in 1870 after the carnage of the Civil War. She was willing to delve into the pain associated with Mother. The Proclamation is readily available to read on the internet. It explains that the goal of the original holiday was meant to gather women in counsel together to speak out united for the welfare of their husbands and children from politicians too eager for engaging the country in war. It begins with these two paragraphs:

Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

100 years after this proclamation I was a student at San Jose State protesting the extension of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. I had a draft card in my pocket with a student deferment. I had friends who were drafted or who had volunteered, and knew one who returned mangled from war wounds. I saw the CBS news with their war reports. I attended teach-ins and learned history besides my engineering studies. I could not envision myself killing another human being, having been taught by my mother and the Church, "Do Not Kill" in the Ten Commandments, and the Golden Rule in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where he also said "Blessed are the Peacemakers." Yet this was quite a struggle for I was also going against the conservative law and order stance and disapproval of student protests of my parents, in spite of Jesus being my Mother's Lord. This struggle of mother love bonds that included religious and patriotic beliefs seemed to be a necessary part of me discerning the workings of conscience and the individuation of myself with a unique unfolding purpose.

I wish my mother had been more exposed to this Proclamation of Women's Day than to the Battle Hymn of the Republic of Julia Ward Howe. I love her as my Mom and have realized she is also just a human being that can be limited by ideas and beliefs of her generation and family history. I can't make it down to see her this year but some of my siblings are celebrating with her. I am spending time with some other special mothers in my life in Santa Rosa, my partner Elaine, her daughter, Susan, Susan's new daughter-in-law Amber bearing a daughter expected in September, four generations!. Lots of mothering and I am hopeful that these are the mothers who will gather often together in counsel for peace and not leave it to "irrelevant agencies".

About the Author and Producer

Ken Norton earned his master's degree in Materials Science from Stanford University as the Vietnam War was ending. During that time Ken served as the personal assistant to a poet/sociologist Dr. William Hermanns as he prepared his writings for publication, exposing Ken to not only the sciences but also the humanities and comparative religion for making conscious and conscionable choices.

Ken is a regular contributor to Radio Spotlight Magazine with his episodes on the Scent of Light. Ken lives in Santa Rosa with his life partner Elaine and their little dog Rosey.