Mother’s Day Trilogy: Episode 1

Mother’s Day Trilogy: Episode 2

Mother’s Day Trilogy: Episode 3 – Part I

Now that I’ve covered the why, it’s time for the what?  What is “Mom Power” and “The Way”?  Mom power, in a nutshell, is girl power…

…times ten.  When a girl gets to be a Mom, there’s some undocumented physiological change that amplifies her girl power, super-charges her intuition and her ability to control others with her mind, (like a real world Jedi); Example #1) The Look,  Example #2) The Voice.  This basic level of the art is very powerful stuff, but it’s not always enough to control the most unruly children.  So Moms of sons are more likely to need the training and guidance of The Way and it’s corresponding secret society, The Sect.

I was talking to a friend, explaining my theories on how it all works.  Since this is a mystical art, not a science, I can’t say that I know for a fact that my version of reality is fully accurate but I know what I’ve seen and I can tell you it’s real.  I was giving my friend some background on this story, evidence that I have which mostly revolves around my experience being raised by my mom.  His opinion was that it’s all very interesting but in his experience, not all moms use their “intuition” the way mine did.  In the words of his dad, my friend’s mom was insecure.  He wondered if maybe not all women have The Power.  I think that’s wrong.  I believe that The Power can be affected by a woman’s background and become controlled by learned behavior but the power itself comes from genes.  It’s a combination of nature and nurture.  The Power must somehow grow with physiological development of the body in the absence of testosterone or the Y chromosome.  The power is then honed through tradition learned from a woman’s own mother in her youth.  Doesn’t sound too different than what most people would call “intuition”.  I think “intuition” is a cover, but I concede the concept is a version of the truth which is considered “real” to most because it’s palatable, even for traditionalists.  I think my friend’s mom was just as capable in using her Power but sometimes chose not to.  Or maybe, without anyone knowing, did use it whenever needed just like mine, but in a way that was much more discreet.  And who’s to say which is right or wrong?  There’s also the possibility that both I and my father were more trouble than he and his, and if so, then my Mom was forced to be more liberal in her application relative to the average Mom.  This is central to the story; rules are great and all, but they’re often arbitrary because many things are relative.  Though women all have The Power, every mom is unique and they all face unique circumstances.

My friend subscribes to the alternative wisdom of post-modernism which is a way of looking at the world, the newest thought paradigm for the middle class (and usually the least popular because it’s often the least comfortable), though it’s been ubiquitous in academia since the 1920’s.  Since I knew that he’s bought into the alternative, I’ve kept him updated with my story and he’s starting to become a believer in The Way, or at least in the subject as an interesting subject for dialogue.  After reading my last post, he agreed with my statements about the effects of a male dominated society which is like a puzzle with a large missing piece.  But, where we differed in perspective was regarding the women’s lib movement and its impact after taking a large segment of the female population out of the home and putting them into decision making positions out in the work place.  It was his suggestion that if The Power, does exist and if I’m right about its connection with a deeper truth, then possibly It will restore balance by motivating our female leaders to push for change in their roles outside of the home.  I know that he’s not alone in holding out hope that The Power will manifest itself in this way.  I don’t discount this as a possibility.  On the contrary, I acknowledge that, like men, women have an inner voice that calls them to use their unique gifts in a certain way.  I don’t think traditional roles or their alternative counterparts are, in and of themselves, right or wrong, but the new work environment is different and therefore will have certain effects that we can only predict with much conjecture.  I also like this perspective in that it’s another voice entering into the conversation which is what this whole story is meant to spark up in the first place.  Possibly the The Power can survive in the workplace, but either way you slice it, it’s definitely alternative and therefore will do one of two things; historically these things are typical when an alternative way starts to impinge on tradition.  1) Clash with tradition when the working Moms refuse to drink the Kool-Aid creating violence, or… 2) The other Way…”The Way of The World” will bend them into submission just like it has done with the men.  Notice I’m giving men a break here.  I don’t think the problem has to do with the nature of us males but of people in general.  It’s just that males, traditionally, are in control.  Hopefully work Moms will be able to resist the urge to go with the flow by insisting on the inclusion of their unique perspective in the decision making process despite it’s clash with tradition, and maybe they’ll succeed, but I doubt this is enough to restore balance; it’s a huge job and those that benefit from the status quo have a lot to lose.  And because tradition never disappears without a messy fight, I think the full blown Mom power is going to be the weapon of choice.  But that’s my perspective because of my background.  I’m sure that in a dialog, other voices will have better arguments for the workplace Mom but it’s not my area of knowledge.  Having been raised by a stay-at-home mom, that’s what I know and I’ve seen evidence of their higher purpose.  I think that if my mom were here today, she would agree.  I remember, one day after I had graduated from high school, I was hanging out with my sister who got distraught when she recalled a conversation that she’d had with our mom.  She felt that Mom had discouraged her from going to college saying, “You don’t have to go to college.  It isn’t for everyone”.  My sister was near tears and interpreted this statement with the subtext “Those with a college degree are “better” than those without” and you aren’t good enough to get one of those.  This was a mis-interpretation driven by society and a scientific (modernist) mindset…..think about it.  Why would a woman who had never gone to college hold this idea to be true.  The answer is that she wouldn’t!  She knew things!

Although The Power is present in all women, it doesn’t really emerge until they give birth.  Within the first year, the girl power is amplified times 10.  This power is often enough to discipline kids (and comes in handy with husbands too).  However, some women find that they need to study The Way in order to learn how to focus the energy and increase its power.  Unruly kids will feel the power from The Look or The Voice just like other kids but they don’t respond because their own instincts are too strong for the basic level of Mom Power to overcome.  I’m not sure how they go about study, but I assume that there’s a trip to some remote undisclosed location once or twice a year for the purpose of studying with a master; a Sifu Mom (probably why summer camps are so popular.  Get the kids out of the house for a week and you have the perfect opportunity to make the trip and get back in time to pick them up while they think that Mom has been at home relaxing the entire time).  The goal of the trip is to study, a new more powerful weapon and over time this weapon must be mastered.  Since I’ve only witnessed the use of one weapon by one Mom, I can’t be sure that there are multiple weapons to choose from but I assume that would be the case as with any martial art.  The weapon of choice in our household was the Mom zapper (A.K.A, the tickle Taser).  Through concentration exercises (similar to a Jedi learning to use the force) the student learns to focus the energy of the Power to a spot the size of a finger tip.  Normally the energy radiates out in all directions, which is why everyone in the room can feel the tension when a mom uses The Voice to discipline her child.  But with the Mom Zapper, ALL of the energy is gathered, funneled through the hand and radiated out of the forefinger and the thumb which jacks up The Power an extra 10x (that’s 100 times more potent than Girl Power!).  I can tell you from experience that it makes you stop in your tracks.  You know how when someone tickles you, your entire body feels the sensation and that’s enough to make you recoil and start throwing elbows in every direction?  Well, imagine if that sensation were amped up times 10 and then concentrated in a spot on your body about a half inch in diameter.  That’s the Mom Zapper Tickle Taser.

I know, I know.  My theory sounds ridiculous by now.  Why would any Mom use a weapon like that on her child as a tool for discipline?  Don’t click off the page just yet because that is a really good question.  The answer is that she wouldn’t, at least not at full power and not very often.  See…the way my mom used it was at a level just powerful enough to get my undivided attention forcing me to get the point and it was combined with the look and voice so that the energy from the voice was felt just before getting zapped.  It’s negative reinforcement like Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning.  If Mom thought it was time for a zap, she’d wait until I got really out of line and then give me the voice.  If I didn’t mind her, and she was within striking distance, I’d get one more warning as she reached over and put her zapping fingers on either side of the soft area just above the collar bone, between the shoulder and the neck.  If I kept it up, she’d apply a slight amount of pressure and concentrate (you could see it in her face).  Once she mastered her power, it only took about a half second to spool up and pull the trigger, causing me to crumple (In hindsight, I remember that I was usually sitting down when getting zapped).  That’s how it went down in practice.  Here’s how it works in theory: The voice precedes the zap and over time the zap is no longer necessary because the conditioning has taken effect and now the response to the stimulus of The Voice is the same with the unruly child as with those who naturally respond without the conditioning.  It’s pure genius, because the conditioning happens when the kid is very young, definitely before the teenage years, when the mind is still fairly under-developed.  This helps to hide the power because the kid has no idea that it’s not physically possible for somebody to pinch you and bring you to your knees.  By the time your mind reaches the level of development where you start to question things, the conditioning phase of The Way is over and has been forgotten…usually.

I’ve run out of space and still haven’t told about how I know all this.  But, I have gotten through the full explanation of the Power and its purpose which should be enough to digest for now.  After having some time to consider this complicated theory, it will be easier to understand the time that the power was used outside of normal parameters agreed to by the members of the Sect.  Also, it’s one AM on Sunday morning and I’m running out of steam.  For now, I’ll end by adding one last fact about me and my mom.  I was kind of a mama’s boy since I was her only son.  Maybe that’s part of the reason I figured all this stuff out, being the object of many protective efforts, doled out in a very matriarchal way.  Most people don’t realize that East Texas is a matriarchal society.  Since it’s largely conservative people assume that it’s male dominated.  Well, it’s not.  Women there are extremely independent and my mom was no exception.  She was indeed a master of The Way and with only one deviation (the event that gave rise to this entire story) she practiced extraordinary care and discretion in its use.  Though she’s not here anymore and there are some decisions she made that I still don’t understand, I can still wish her a Happy Mother’s day.

And Happy Mother’s Day to all the other Moms out there.  Thanks for all you do and keep fighting the good fight.  World peace hangs in the balance.

To Be Continued……