Holy Hammocks!

Like many women my age, I suffer from over-active guilt and a whole list of rules that were either invented by men, our mothers, or not relevant to my circumstances.

Part of my learning process which enabled me to reject useless constructs had to do with my mother (don’t they all?). When I was thirteen, I begged her to get my ears pierced. She informed me “Only whores have pierced ears.” I countered that her sister, my Aunt Rosemary, had pierced ears, and in the typical fashion of my mother she replied, “See?”

So many years went by and I was in my 20’s longing for pierced ears and resigned that since I wasn’t interested in being branded as a whore, no holes would desecrate my precious pure ear lobes. I came home one weekend, and my mother was sporting a brand new pair of pierced earrings in her ears.

I was of course, aghast. I reminded her of her comments from my childhood and her impact it had in denying me something I wanted. She flat out lied that she ever said it and termed it nonsense. Finally when I persisted, she laughed and said, “I probably just didn’t want to spend the money on you for such a frivolous thing.”

I immediately went out and had my ears pierced, bought my self some pretty diamond studs and proceeded to disregard most everything she had taught me…