Mother in Stasis

The following poetically inclined prose is a retrospectively examined narrative. It emanates from a—fly on the wall—third party perspective, however seeks to capture the essence of a son's non-subservience to his mother. It delineates—through extrapolating themeiology—the sort of belief, ergo dialogue, necessary for the son to forge a meaningful interface with her.

The attitudes innuendoed and parroted towards her at nauseam by the narrator, at times sarcastically, are her own. They form the only basis on which 'A relationship' between mother and son, irrespective of its merits or lack thereof, is conceivable. The son's strict adherence to his mother's views would therefore feature overwhelmingly if their interactions were to be fruitful. Fruitful only to such an end that there be a direct, unobstructed—and in her mind accurate and correct—transfer of her world view to him, thereby to some vague degree appeasing her many concerns.

Outside of the constraints on display in this piece, no catalyst with which to forge a relationship of much if any substance exists. Any attempt, therefore, on the part of the son to gain his mother's love and acceptance would require all but his complete concession. In lieu of such ideals, the son moves forward in life towards a point of no return, a moment onwards from which any contest within his inner deliberations, hence his soul, remain his own to deal with as he sees fit, with there being no input what-so-ever sought from his mother.

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Word Count: 850 approx.

You were a little girl. You had to do it tough. You had no father. He died in the war before you were born. Then you came to this country full of hope, met the man of your dreams.

Then you became a young woman. You were with child. Again and again you brought forth life in this new land. You have a family. Shielded from the profundity of an enlightened life, protected by a silent diligent hard working husband.

Secretly, you despise the world in which you now reside. It is not as good, culturally, as the place from which you came; from which your mother fled in order to provide for you a life of abundance. This place is full of men and women of far lesser calibre than yourself, far less smart and resourceful. They have had it easy. They are stupid. They plunder their money and livelihoods for their own pleasure and gain. What stupidity. What sin.

These pretenders act all sophisticated, as though they are intelligent, but they are not smart. They are dumb, stupid. And as for all those educated ones, they spend all their waking time philosophising as though they have all the answers. But you see right through their facade. After all, if you yourself can't understand something, then there is no possible way it can be true. You have definitely always known all that is worthwhile knowing in this world. Everything else is simply a distraction, not worth the time of day thinking about.

You have no such demons. All that you do is perfect. If only these others around you would follow your good example, then that which ails the world would surely cease. These others are responsible for all the world's troubles. It is their fault. Look at how they morph and change with the times, how they adapt to modernity. How stupid are they? You will do no such thing. You are set in stone. As for your own troubles, they all come upon you at the hands of them. These people abuse you, meddle in the affairs of your family. It is they who have infected your children with their disease.

Were it not for them you might have retained perfect harmony within your own family. But children will marry, and not particularly well, so now you have less control over what they hear, think and say. You tried to warn them, but they orchestrated their own matrimony, to their own demise. It's all said and done. Too late. I guess you need to make out as best you can. They, all your kids, were once good examples to others, but that's when they were small. They thought what you thought, believed what you believe. Now they are spoiled.

But they appear to be doing reasonably well on the outside. Could they indeed be flourishing? Is it possible that unbeknownst to you they are growing, evolving, learning daily and perhaps even thriving? No, it cannot be so. How ridiculous to even think that. Anything good they ever learnt was from you alone. Everything else is stupid. It is only by the principals seeded by yourself that anything good has come of them at all. Imagine where they would be now if you weren't there to protect them when they were young. Things would be even more grim. What about if they had taken your advice to heart. Things would be much better now.

Now you are old. They spend less time with you. Some even moved away. This is the rotten influence marriage has upon one's offspring. Now you are forced to spend more time alone. Your children don't visit as often as you like, some less than others, one in particular rarely at all. He was always your biggest problem, the worst of them all. He got sucked in early in life. He tried to believe in those crazy ideas about freedom. Look at what they did to him. He will never amount to anything now because they cursed him. If he had listened to you, followed exactly as you instructed, he would by now be happy and successful. Instead he is a loser.

But look at you, you are so happy. It's good to see that your children still visit from time to time. Some more than others. One of them particularly frequently. He is the good boy. He visits you often to see how you are doing. He calls you to catch up. He cares for you. He is the best of them all. Unlike that other problem child. He never comes around at all unless you call on him and invite him over.

But they are all doing their best under the circumstances. It must be good to see them persevere despite all that's been asked of them. If only they had listened to you, imagine how much more they would have thrived. Imagine how much more perfect your family might be if they had owned the wisdom—like you—to remain unchanged. You tried to tell them. You warned them time and again, but they would not listen. Now this is the best they can get.

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