05/10/2020
“M“: MONOGRAM FOR MOTHER
Morning: I “met” my Mommy when Mommy mixed milk for my meal. I made a mess. Mommy mopped it up. Mommy made medicines for my maladies, mended my mishaps, made my miserable moments merry.
Mid-day: After matrimony, my man and I moved miles away from Mommy. Mommy missed me. I missed Mommy too, but not as much as Mommy missed me. As I matured to a mother myself, “Mother” means to me much much more than a mere moniker.
Throughout many millennia, from mythical to modern, “Mother” has always had a multitude of meanings: magnificence but also modesty, mightiness but also mildness. No mountains match her magnificence, no melodies match her mildness, no machines match her might, and no monks match her modesty.
Midnight: In the mausoleum, under the macabre moonlight, I mourned my Mommy. Now, Mommy is missing, and from then on I will miss my Mom more than my Mom misses me.
The morale or message of this manuscript? “Mother” means Much (or Many), More, and Most.
Johan-Chanh Tran (writing as a daughter to her mother).
(My mother is 88 this year, and is still healthy and alert). Happy Mother's Day.