Not so surprising near Harvard and M.I.T. as it would be if I discovered that about my congressional district.
Well, yeah. Thing is, I know I'm only a couple blocks from MIT, but I tend to forget about it. We're not exactly Harvard Square where I live.
Was the original entry one that lambasted the holiday?
This is me trying to think about it objectively: I don't think so. By which I mean, I don't think she intended it to be. It's probably possible to interpret it that way -- she said she didn't need a madeup holiday to remind her, so I suppose people could take that as lambasting -- but I think she was just... saying.
When I don't celebrate a holiday, I don't resent the mere mention of it, and bitch as if anyone who could get enjoyment from it was either a dupe of the mega corporations, or a deluded fool.
I was just thinking, most of the posts I've seen railing against such days are made by people who do celebrate them -- and hate it. Honestly, the amount of posts made by people whose mothers threw apocalyptic sulks if they didn't get the present/dinner/brunch/devotion that they thought they deserved made me really wonder if it doesn't do more harm than good!
But then again, one imagines those particular mother-child relationships are a bit guilt-laden at the best of times, and it's not the day's fault.
By the way, I don't not celebrate Mother's Day because I disapprove (although I admit I'm not big on scheduled holidays anyway, maybe due to my forgetfulness), but rather because my mother has never been home for it. She's always said her mother's day present was being away from her kids for the day. Okay, that sounds mean and disfunctional, but actually it's funny.