I have been surrounded by nurses my whole life; my mother, my aunts, my cousins, and even my best friends have endeavored into the noble profession. Something I've learned about nurses is that nurses, like teachers and priests, cannot dissociate their profession from their every day life: they are typically compassionate with everyone, attentive to detail, uniquely humorous, and amazingly thoughtful whether they're on the job, or hanging out with friends.
Earlier this week, I wanted to make a joke about how nurses got a week to celebrate honor their, work and yet mothers only get a day. And while I was attempting to point at a subtle irony, upon further reflection, a celebration of motherhood is really, a fitting apex of a week celebrating nurses. After all, mothers are the first nurses. They are the first to answer our cries for help, to guide us in times of sorrow, to prop us up for our first and most important steps; they often console us when we have to confront difficult truths; bring us water when we suffer from insatiable thirst; provide comfort when we are in pain. Indeed, not all nurses are mothers, but I have a difficult time conceiving of how all mothers aren't in some way nurses.
In the end, it does make sense that Mother's Day completes the Nurses week, but for the sake of gift-giving, nobody mention it to my own mother, lest she believe she should get gifts for both.
Earlier this week, I wanted to make a joke about how nurses got a week to celebrate honor their, work and yet mothers only get a day. And while I was attempting to point at a subtle irony, upon further reflection, a celebration of motherhood is really, a fitting apex of a week celebrating nurses. After all, mothers are the first nurses. They are the first to answer our cries for help, to guide us in times of sorrow, to prop us up for our first and most important steps; they often console us when we have to confront difficult truths; bring us water when we suffer from insatiable thirst; provide comfort when we are in pain. Indeed, not all nurses are mothers, but I have a difficult time conceiving of how all mothers aren't in some way nurses.
In the end, it does make sense that Mother's Day completes the Nurses week, but for the sake of gift-giving, nobody mention it to my own mother, lest she believe she should get gifts for both.
