Motherly Encouragement
My mother bugged the hell out of me. I can only say that now because she passed away eleven years ago and will never read this. At least I don't think she will. Of course I would trade all the irritation in the world to have one more day with her. I might even let her smoke. Mother's and the male children they spawn have a unique relationship and as a man I am still trying to understand it. I say male children because I am neither a woman nor a mother so it would be difficult to see inside that world. I am 44 years old, over half way through raising my own child and I still haven't figured it out. Perhaps it is a mystery of the ages as distant as the ways of the ancients. Despite this, as a thinking man I still try to understand. I still contemplate the intense arguments I had with my mother in the morning as she drove me to school. They happened so often yet I can't recall a reason for a single one. I still wonder how my mother, who wanted so badly to