Grading Day

Yes, yes I know it's Mother's Day in the Hallmark ordo (CSS has its limits, please imagine the hearts and butterflies and glitter). Math Man wished me a happy Mother's Day when I woke up this morning. "Should I make you breakfast?" "Truly, I just want a cup of tea and a cinnamon roll." (Note that this does not constitute breakfast in Math Man's book!)  There is a pause. "Does that mean just put the water on to boil for you?"  Absolutely, that would feel like amazing pampering in my book.


I came down to find the kettle just whistling and a cinnamon bun (its plump contours peeping over the top of the soup bowl in which it had been plopped — the plates were all in the dishwasher) and the mug that makes me laugh laid out on the counter.

The chore awaiting me today, though, is not anything anyone can help me with.  I have a dozen senior papers to read and a stack of general chemistry exams to grade.  Senior grades are due tomorrow morning (in my department by 9 am).  Math Man is already sprawled on the sofa doing the same thing, while The Boy (still recuperating from Friday's prom) is gearing up to study for Monday's AP Physics exam.  Here it's all about exams and grades and papers, mothers (and the 7th Sunday of Easter, for that matter) are on the back burner.  May I wish you a "Happy Grading Day"?

Like my mother or Mary DeTurris Poust, an official Mother's Day is not a need in my book. What I treasure are all the daily reminders of the ways in which I am webbed into a warm and loving community: Crash who sends me his final essay (on prostitution in London in the 18th century?); the ephemera in my breviary, holy cards for friends' mothers — and their children; postcards from friends clipped to the board in my offices at home and work; an origami love note from The Boy, left on my keyboard one afternoon years ago — still on my desk; the flowers Math Man brings home when he does the grocery shopping; the funny notes students have been leaving on the white board on my door...

"...that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."