As Mother’s Day approaches, it is appropriate that we discuss the physical characteristics, personality traits, coping mechanisms, etiquette rules, life ambitions, etcetera that we inherited from our mothers.
Let’s discuss it in hushed tones, though. We don’t want Uncle Sam salivating over a new type of inheritance tax. (“Who needs Chinese loans? We’ve got dimples, lasagna recipes and heirloom Tupperware! KA-CHING!”) I inherited my soft spot for stray animals from my mother. And when confronted with her clutter, she takes a perverse pride in confessing, “I’m a packrat – like Danny!”; but in many ways, we are complete opposites.
As my bookshelves will attest, I did not inherit her aversion to reading. If she possessed a time machine (a FLIP time machine, not one of those newfangled smart time machines!), she would go back and snatch Johannes Gutenberg from his crib and train him for a life of lawnmowing.
