story corps & mother's day

So tonight my family and I are getting together for a little early Mother's Day celebration at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side of NYC for a reading of the Story Corps book Mom. It's a book full of transcribed interviews with moms all over the US. My mom loves stuff like that (and I do too) so I thought it would be really fun to hear some of them read aloud and then buy the book for her afterward.

The people at Story Corps have animated one of the the stories about a little boy who has Asperger's syndrome interviewing his mom. I first heard this interview on their podcast that I subscribe to (and highly recommend) and it really touched me then, just as the little animation did now. It's only 4 minutes long: sit down and watch it, then maybe give your own mom a call.

I'm lucky enough to be living at home with my parents right now (or maybe not so lucky?) so I see my mom a lot, but I remember being in Utah at school and I would call her at least once a day, often more than that, just to chat or to ask her a quick question or favor. Some days she literally made my whole day. When she would come out to visit we would always have so much fun just the two of us or with my friends and I was never embarrassed to have her around: quite the contrary, I wished she could be there more. People talk about their heroes being people who have made great scientific discoveries or who have written great novels or pushed through important government legislation. Whenever I think of heroes in my own life I always think of my mom first.