Well, it’s mother’s day and while I don’t have a tremendous amount of humor (ok, I do) to be associated with the BLOG, I wanted to send a shot out to the one that gave birth to me. (Hopefully you know who you are) I also wanted to send a big happy mothers day to my brother from another mother and his mommy. Here is a good story that helps me put in perspective the relationship with my mom.

Story Title: Knowing when to be silent…

During a pretty sizable community event we ended up at an older man’s house looking through items he had for sale. In the Midwest we call these rummage sales. As we were rummaging through his goods and wares he started to talk about some of the items he had for sale. The nice older gentleman told me he was a survivor of the Holocaust . I was listening to his stories, when my mother walks into the middle of the conversation and decides says quite abruptly - “That’s cool, I am German”. In other words our ancestors were part of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question and slaughtering of 11 million of your fellow friends and family members.

Word to my MOM!

Morale of the Story: Everyone has a past and a culture they should be proud of, but it’s perfectly fine to selectively be proud.

For the record, my mother had no idea what she was saying and was more about “getting involved with the conversation”. It wasn’t until we left that I spilled the beans on why at that particular point in time it wasn’t hip to be German. It’s a story we tell to this day!