Mother's day celebration: Ethiopian style. (Denise)

Mother's day:

1. a day of the year (in the US, the second Sunday in May) on which mothers are honored by their children.

Ethiopian:

    a native or inhabitant of Ethiopia, or a person of Ethiopian descent.

When I was thinking about going to college, I ended up choosing between two very different paths:  To the north, there was Western Washington University, and to the south was the Evergreen State College.

Western was this beautiful, art-filled campus in Bellingham, an incredibly cozy little town. The dorms were classy, the buildings modernly tasteful, and the girls distracting.  It was everything I could hope for in a college experience.  Had I gone there, I probably would have majored in Physics, which would have required me being in school for 4 years, and accruing that much debt.

Evergreen, on the other hand, was a cement oasis in an otherwise lush forest of green.  Old, blocky buildings added definition to the paved pathways winding around campus, and the only art piece I remember offhand was a giant 'swinging bench' attached to a big A-frame of metal.  It didn't swing.

The appeal to Evergreen was the freedom:  As I already had two years worth of college credits under my belt from going to community college during high school, there were no required classes to take.  Evergreen has no majors, so there was no need to declare one.  Each quarter, I could take any class I wanted, following my evolving passions to my hearts content.  And, I'd graduate in only two years.

What would an American do?

Well, that question can be answered with a metaphor:  It's mother's day, and you're deciding what to do to celebrate.  Conventional tradition would say "waffles and orange juice in bed."  But maybe you don't want waffles in bed.  Maybe you want to eat with your family.  Maybe you're in the mood for something savory, not sweet.  And maybe you want to actually go out, do something new.

So you don't look to "American Convention", you look to reality: the whole barrage of options and opportunities available to all the people of the world, all the cultures, traditions, and creative expressions of the 7 billion neighbors we currently enjoy.

And you decide to celebrate Mother's Day Ethiopian style.  Because it fits, and because it sounds delicious.

They say that America is a melting pot, but that's their metaphor.  I say that the world offers us a richness of options available for delightful consumption, if we just look.  

Let's have Mother's Day, Ethiopian style.

The fact is, I'd already gone to massage school:  I'd taken a 6-month program that qualified me to make $30-$60+/hour once I really dived into it.  I'd taken that program because I didn't know if I'd have a job waiting for me when I graduated.  And the cost of that 6-month program was negligible compared to even the cheapness of a state school.

I'd eaten Ethiopian without even realizing it.

And because I was so satiated, I didn't need to gorge myself on 4 more years of physics study, hoping that it would make me big and strong for the rough and tough world out there.

Instead I opted for the tapas bar:  I went to Evergreen, with its ugly, plain, cement canvas, and painted my own ideas, studying physics, calculus, literature, ethics, language, sociolinguistics, and creative writing.

Sometimes I wish that I'd had the waffles.  Waffles are sweet, crunchy, and they leave you in a happy food coma, still in the comfort of your bed.

But regardless of what the right choice was, I love that I live in a world where I can eat Ethiopian.