Mothers, Easters and Hallmark

It's close to Easter. A holiday which I love but have also grown to hate. 11 years ago, my mother passed away March 31st. Easter that year was on April 7th. The church was filled with Easter lillies for the holiday service. I hate Easter Lillies now, the sight and smell of them send me back to that horrible time.
My mom was pretty neat. Unusual in her own right, proud of who she was, honest, plain, simple, and loving. Taught every child at church "Jesus loves me." Babies and children somehow sensed her goodness and would seek her out. Church, grocery stores, parks, department stores, it did not matter, they flocked to her.
Alzheimers robbed her slowly of her life, her light and her spirit and finally her dignity. What a horrible disease, so insidious, so invasive and so relentless. We went from "I know you." to "I know you are one of my children" to "Who are you?"
So today, on the anniversary of her physical death, I mourn the loss of my mother. But in reality she left us 2 years earlier in spirit.
And yes, sadly enough sometimes the hardest lesson you learn is one learned too late. If you have had any semblance of a semi functional relationship with your parents, you will miss them terribly after they are gone. Some times with just passing regret of how they loved spring when the gardenias and azaleas bloom. Other times it's the crushing realization that they are gone..forever.
The Mothers Day after she passed away, I was standing in line with a card for my soon to be mother in law. The lady behind me struck up a conversation and was showing me the card she had picked out for her mother. As cards went, it was average. "Is that the card for your mother?" "No, my mother passed away in March, if I had just one more Mothers Day with her the card I would buy wouldn't even FIT in the store." She left the line and came back with the Cadillac of cards.
So.... for Easter, 4th of July, International Children's Book day, National Cheese Day, or any other day you wish...buy someone a card and write in it something that you want them to know....something that years from now you will have no regrets from things left unsaid.

Liberal Hollywood

One morning I happened to catch Rosie O'Donnell, bloviating (it's her only speech mode) on "The View". She was babbling on about how we are "torturing" people at Guantanamo (we aren't of course but why should facts get in the way of her agenda) and how the Patriot Act is violating the "civil rights" of so many Americans. She had no examples, of course, but again – why confuse her audience with facts!?I pondered the mindset of today's liberals throughout the week. My conclusion is that basically liberals are big, highly dangerous babies who do not want to accept the fact that bad things do happen. They truly believe that if they just stick their heads under their little baby bird wings and hum a few choruses of "Kumbaya", the bad stuff will go away. And of course, the very notion of risking their lives for ANYTHING is absolutely anathema to them.This attitude is particularly galling emanating from such as Rosie O'Donnell. This is a very VOCAL lesbian woman who considers herself married to another woman. I think it is safe to assume that her persona and lifestyle would be offensive beyond words to your average jihadist lunatic. In other words, whether she wants to believe it or not, should there be a victory for America's enemies in the war on terror, she will have a big fat target on her back! But again, why interject reality into her fantasy worldview – or the fantasy worldview of most liberals.Actually, most of those who spend a great deal of time agitating against the President and his efforts to protect America have lifestyles that would make them targets. Sarandon/Robbins – living together without benefit of marriage. Barbra Streisand – Jewish. Nancy Pelosi – a woman in a position of power. Sean Penn – he'd open his big fat yap and have it shut for him permanently. Jihadist scum won't give a damn about his Oscar.This completely self-absorbed group of people – liberals all – are a danger to our nation. For every intelligent, reasonable, ADULT person such as Joe Lieberman, there are 99 idiotic, prattling public liberals (in entertainment, the news media and public life) who just don't seem to understand that a loss for America will be the loss of their comfortable lives as they know them – even, in fact, for their very existence. There are days when I truly think we are doomed. But this nation and our way of life IS worth fighting for. And fortunately, I know that there are many Americans who are willing to do just that.