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Mother’s Day is our annual opportunity to honor our mothers. For me that usually includes a card, flowers or some other gift along with a phone call to mom to tell her that I love and miss her. I’ve gotten relatively reliable with these things of late, though in many past years I’ve honored my mother by feeling horribly guilty that I completely forgot that it was Mother’s Day. This year in honor of Mom — even though I did remember to send flowers well in advance — I’m also working to consolidate all those digital photos that we haven’t been posting over the past several months. More guilty motivation.

All that guilt and all those gifts make Mother’s Day one of the most commercial holidays of the year. According to IBISWorld (via Wikipedia), a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts — like spa treatments — and another $68 million on greeting cards. According to the National Restaurant Association (also via Wikipedia), Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States. We’re expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother’s Day.

But Mother’s Day is not just another Hallmark holiday. You may not know that Mother’s Day in the United States was started by Julia Ward Howe as a call to unite women against war. Which war? The American Civil War. Nice thought, but apparently we still haven’t learned much from Ms. Howe. On Mother’s Day this year, in addition to the billions we’ll spend on gifts for Mom, we’ll also spend $720 million on the continuing war in Iraq. We’ll spend it again tomorrow. And again the day after. All that adds up to an estimated $3 trillion bill for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. But that cost pales in comparison to the nearly 100,000 lives lost so far. How’s that guilty motivation now? This year, in honor of Mom and Mother’s Day, I’ll spend a little more money. But this time it will be spent in the form of a donation to an anti-war organization. Maybe CODEPINK?

Lastly, I received a nice Mother’s Day gift today. Reid, Ava and I were at the grocery store this morning rounding up provisions for a nice breakfast for Amy. We were in the checkout line and the store clerk was carrying on a friendly conversation with us. He looked at Ava in the cart seat and asked, “And how are you?” Ava pointed at something in the cart and said, “I got that.” The clerk replied, “You got that? Well I’m sure Mom will like that.”

It was the first time that Ava has said anything to a stranger that was perfectly understood and replied to. I’m sure Mom will like that. Dad did too.

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Addendum: I made two donations in honor of Mom today: One to the Collateral Repair Project to help Iraqi refugees, and one to CODEPINK’s campaigns to end the war in Iraq. Both of them made via the CODEPINK website.