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On this 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, the woman credited with creating one of the world’s most celebrated holidays probably wouldn’t be pleased with all the flowers, candy or gifts.
Anna Jarvis would want us to give mothers a white carnation — she felt it signified the purity of a mother’s love.
Jarvis, who never married and never had children, got the Mother’s Day idea after her mother said it would be nice if someone created a memorial to mothers.
Three years after her mother died in 1905, she organized the first official mother’s day service at a church where her mother had spent more than 20 years teaching Sunday school.
Today, the former Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church is the official shrine to mothers around the world. On Sunday, the shrine will celebrate the 100th anniversary, giving each mother attending a special service a white carnation.
The shrine also serves as a "reminder to the accomplishments of these women and to the issues mothers still deal with today, trying to do the balancing act of being everything to everyone," said Cindi Mason, the shrine’s director.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 83 million mothers in the United States. More mothers now work out of the home and the number of single-mother households has tripled to more than 10 million since 1970.
What has allowed Mother’s Day to become celebrated on the second Sunday in May in 52 countries is "everyone has a mother," said Sally Thayer, a trustee of the International Mother’s Day Shrine in Grafton. "It’s a wonderful thing to celebrate."
Jarvis’ devotion to and her fierce defense of Mother’s Day could be tied to the feeling that "a certain era was passing and mothers like her mother were becoming fewer," said Laura Prieto, an associate professor of history and women’s studies at Simmons College in Boston.

myfoxwausau.com

Mothers are great, kind and generous. They’re loving and supportive. They’re genuine.
You’ve heard that before, perhaps felt it in your lifetime and most definitely read it on a greeting card.
As a result, I’ve struggled the past few days to organize my thoughts about mothers and motherhood.
My thinking, nevertheless, led me to pondering my own mother and reflecting on time we’ve passed together.
There was the day when I was a young boy, riding in the car with Mom, who began to make funny faces at passing cars in an attempt to make me laugh. It worked. She made herself goofy, caring not about her own possible embarrassment, for my benefit. I realized then how cool my mom was, and I’ll never forget that beautiful moment.
Another time, we drove to the city to see a movie, an experience that was a rare and big deal for kids in rural areas with no movie theaters. And so it was a rare, big deal for me to go to a movie with my cool mom.
My mother did many fun things with me, but she also made decisions in raising me that, as I consider them in adulthood, couldn’t have been easy.
As a thrill seeker whose friends were allowed to take their bikes down our dirt road and across the nearest paved road, I once felt it was time for me to expand my permissible roaming area. Until then, I was not allowed to cross Johnson Road without an adult.
“But Mom, I’m 9 years old,” I declared. What I don’t remember is if she laughed in my face, as maybe she should have. What I do remember is she granted my request. She must have wrestled with the question in her own mind and decided, hesitantly, to let me have a little more independence. Now a parent, I can relate to that hold-your-breath feeling she must have had when I took off on my bike. That afternoon, she let go a little.

battlecreekenquirer.com

(EMAILWIRE.COM, May 01, 2008 ) Free printable Mother’s Day cards Availbe in Both Printable and E Card Formats
San Francisco, California - May 1, 2008 — KeepandShare.com ( http://www.keepandshare.com ) today announced its free online free printable mother’s day cards resource center. The free Mother’s Day Cards center offers easy online Mother’s Day cards and Mother’s Day cards that are in both printable and e card formats. The printable Mother’s Day cards are all in gorgeou, high-res PDF formats that can be downloaded for free. Every card is also available for immediate delivery as an online digital e card.
KeepandShare’s free free printable mother’s day cards online web center is available now at:
“I always had difficulty using the web for Mother’s Day cards that are in both printable and e card formats.,” said Christina Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona. “But now that KeepandShare provides free printable mother’s day cards I’m ready to rock.” Christina continued “I’ll try using easy online Mother’s Day cards and Mother’s Day Cards as soon as I get home and fire up my new laptop computer. Mom will be proud of me!”
“Why not use the Internet to let Mom know you love her? That’s what I say,” said Eps Marcus of Phoenix, Arizona. “I have this great color printer at home. I’m going to use it to print a card out ahead of time and mail it. But I’m also going to send a personal ecard on Mother’s Day itself. I want her to know I’m thinking of Mom, and all she did for me. “
KeepandShare.com is the free website that makes group sharing easy. KeepandShare’s free secure file and calendar sharing accounts can be accessed securely from any Internet connected computer. The new free free printable mother’s day cards resource center joins several other popular Mothers Day centers at:

emailwire.com

Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Heidi Atwal, Kimberly Chun, Michelle Devereaux, Max Goldberg, Dennis Harvey, Johnny Ray Huston, Maria Komodore, Lynn Rapoport, Sara Schieron, Jason Shamai, and Matt Sussman. The film intern is Jennique Mason. For rep house showtimes, see Rep Clock. For first-run showtimes, see Movie Clock at sfbg.com.
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The 51st San Francisco International Film Festival runs through Thurs/9. Venues are the Castro, 429 Castro, SF; Clay, 2261 Fillmore, SF; Kabuki, 1881 Post, SF; and Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft, Berk. Tickets (most shows $12.50) are available by calling (925) 866-9559 or at www.sffs.org. All times p.m. unless otherwise noted.
Clay Big Man Japan 4:15. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon 6:45. Timecrimes 9:45.
Kabuki Calavera Highway 1. Mongol 2:15. Medicine for Melancholy 3:30. Latent Argentina 4. Dust 4:15. My Winnipeg 5. Sleep Dealer 6:15. Ballast 6:30. Vasermil 7. Scott Arford: Static Life 7:15. Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans 9. Valse Sentimentale 9:15. La Zona 9:30. Not By Chance 9:45.
PFA Recycle 6:30. Wonderful Town 8:45.
Castro Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson 7.
Clay Orz Boyz 5:45. The Art of Negative Thinking 8:15.
Kabuki Children of the Sun 1:30. American Teen 3. Secrecy 3:15. All Is Forgiven 4. Glasses 5. Big Man Japan 5:15. Flower in the Pocket 6. The Secret of the Grain 7:15. The Man from London 7:30. Shadows in the Palace 7:45. Umbrella 8:30.
PFA Calavera Highway 6:30. Up the Yangtze 8:55.
The Favor The Favor delivers its familiar refrain about the family we make being the family we keep with all the assuredness and innocuousness of an ABC original movie. Lawrence Hull (Frank Hood) is a schlubby pet photographer who is left to raise 16-year-old wild child Johnny (The O.C.’s Ryan Donowho) after his mother is killed in a freak accident. Lawrence and Johnny’s newly minted relationship is subject to the usual barrage of troubled teen slings and arrows: substance abuse, truancy, and an all-around communication breakdown. But harsh words eventually give way to tears, and the two men at this story’s core deliver both with enough credibility to let the film’s genuine sweetness shine through its most clichéd passages. (1:32) Red Vic. (Sussman)

sfbg.com