Mother is the word

What is wanting for the youth of France be well educated?" Napoleon once asked. The reply was 'good mothers'. The Emperor forcibly struck by the answer exclaimed: "Here is a system in one word".

On another occasion he declared: "The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother." These are very important characteristics of mothers, but they are not the only ones. There are so many other attributes. Today is Mother's Day. It has taken quite some time in being included in the list of international days. Though it is set to honour the mother it is equally asserted that mothers deserve more than just one day in their honour. They deserve a period so that mothers' sons and daughters find time, occasions and praises for their mothers.

"Mother, a maiden is a tender thing
And best by her that bore her understood"

This couplet by Lord Tennyson is very apt.

Proverbs are wise sayings by mature wise men. Three of these proverbs praise motherhood in these words: "The good mother saith not 'Will you?' but gives." Another declares: "Mother's love is the cream of love." And yet a third: "Mother's truth keeps constant youth." Some cultures hold this truth in no uncertain manner. Italians call their mother Mammina, no matter old she may be. Russians call their mothers or someone they respect very much mamushka, little mother, however high their rank may be. They even called the Tsarina by the dimunitive.

Mothers in the animal kingdom are the fierce protectors of their offspring. Among humans, sons and daughters are the inveterate protectors of their mother. Mothers are held as saints sent by God Almighty to raise and protect them against all evil and all enemies. This is the principal argument of their educational upbringing.

The way a mother looks at her children softens anger or disapproval. Lord Longdale pictures mothers rather euphemistically in this manner. He says that if the world was put in a scale and any mother in the other scale the world would hit the beam!

Mother and child

The most romantic of sculptures and paintings are those representing a mother and her child. The German poet and dramatist Goethe described such a pleasant sight: "There is nothing more charming than to see a mother with a child in her arms and nothing more venerable than a mother among a number of her children."

The word 'mother' is the dearest word in any language. In joy or sorrow, in pleasure or pain everyone expresses heartfelt feelings in the word mother. If one wants to know for sure the nationality of a person is to hear the word mother in the person's own native language.

Mother is for her wonderful ways. No other creature can feel as much and always as much as a mother which leads to the argument that every day is really and actually Mother's Day.

Today simply happens to be the formal appreciative date of all that mother means to us all. There is no other nation that venerates a woman more than when she is a mother and is expressing her innermost thoughts and feelings for one's mother. Mother is in love with us all of our days. A woman can be a wife, a partner or a friend for most of the time but a mother is together with her children in each other's hearts forever, for mother is everything she means to us.

All-descriptive word

One wishes for another word which is similar in meaning and feeling as the word mother. But a more wonderful person than that denoted by the word 'mother' cannot be invented. The kindness, care, protection and constant love take a special different meaning when alluded to a mother than to any other kind of woman or creature.

Yet no single word could ever fully express all these things there can be no doubt as to the innermost personal feeling when one calls a woman mother. This is because it means all that and more because she means everything to a person of whatever gender irrespective of the feelings however dear, sentimental, indulgent, relaxed of tolerant of any other creature.

Mother has a fascination all of its own which is used in wishing every mother today of all days and forever, "Happy Mother's Day".