Month: May 2013

Mama Saint

by Katie Welker
Mama Saint and I
Oldie but goodie, Thanksgiving a few years ago.

I call my mom “Mama Saint.” I don’t remember exactly when this nickname for my mom started, I just remember it was a long time ago and that my twin sister and I dubbed her to be Mama Saint. It caught on quickly, likely because it suits her so well.

If I grow up to have even half of the upstanding qualities that my mom showcases every day, I will be more than proud of the life I live. I consider myself to be truly blessed to have two parents who I am proud to call my friends, though I tend to get more sentimental and sappy with my mom (if you spend 10 minutes with her you’ll understand that I get it from her.)

Mama Saint is compassionate. She’s never too shy to help someone in need or offer a kind word to someone who looks like they’re having a bad day, whether she knows them or not. She has become a mother-like figure to my closest friends and will always be my biggest cheerleader.

Mama Saint is selfless. When I was in high school I wanted to go to Italy. My school was planning a 14-day trip to visit the country from top to bottom. Some of my best friends were going, I had taken the language since 5th grade and I had never traveled outside of the U.S. But it was expensive. My mom didn’t allow money to be a troublesome factor. To this day, I still don’t know how she sent me to Italy on such short notice. Sure, I did a little fundraising, but it accounted for the amount of maybe two meals. Times have always been tough in my family and I know without a doubt that the money could have been better spent elsewhere. But she sent me on my way, made sure I had cute outfits to wear, a little extra money in my pocket, and a birthday cake to blow out the candles on when I turned 17 while I was away from home. She’s a gem of a woman.

Mama Saint is candid. My mom is the spectator in the stands of my school’s basketball game who shouts, “BEAUTIFUL!” every time a player makes a basket. If they’re on the rival team my mom will respond to crude looks from fans by saying, “What? It was a really nice shot!”  You can recognize her laugh (one of many that she has) from a mile away. She never hesitates to go, “Oh my goshhhh, look!” and slow down to half of the speed limit when she sees a deer (or any other animal) off to the side of the room. She’s adorable.

Mama Saint is genuine. When I would be sick with the flu back when I lived at home, I would walk down the stairs to the kitchen looking like a hot mess. Wild hair, flushed cheeks and on the verge of tossing my cookies. My mom would look up at me and say, “you are so beautiful.” I laughed in her face. But what’s funny now is that I know she really meant it. She sees a certain beauty in people that others are quick to glance over, a trait that I believe is too scarce these days.

These qualities about my mom used to embarrass me when I was younger. I’ll be the first to admit I was a little brat when I was a kid. I’m not embarrassed anymore, and I wish I would have realized what a little shit I was much sooner. Not only am I blessed to have such a caring woman as my mother, but I get to have her as my friend, too. She frequently says to me, “Kate, God hand-picked you to be my daughter.” As far as I’m concerned, she was hand-picked to be my mother, and I thank God every day for the positive impact she has on my life.

This is water

by Katie Welker

As a recent college graduate, and someone who was fortunate enough to give the undergraduate student commencement speech on behalf of my graduating class, I can vouch for two things: it is difficult to contrive a speech that will resonate with a large and diverse audience, and it is difficult to sit through a speech that does not. I stumbled upon the 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech and was so captivated by the message that I felt it necessary to share.

I promise you it is worth watching the short video in its entirety. You can find it at the bottom of this post. Here is a short excerpt:

“If you want to operate on your default settings then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

Not that that mystical stuff’s necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital T-True is that you get to decide how you’re going to try to see it. This, I submit, is the freedom of real education. Of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. That is real freedom … None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death. The capital T-Truth is about life before death.”