My Amazing Mom
I was coming home across the 520 bridge around 12:30am (still working on a paper) and heard this interview on NPR with this 82 year-old woman in the Philippines who is singlehandedly revolutionized the book sales industry there, and has gone to great lengths to get textbooks into the hands of children all over her country. She’s even gone so far as to broker deals with Western publishing houses to let her reprint texts for a small royalty fee. When the interviewer asked her, as politely as he could, whether the fact that she now essentially has a monopoly on book sales in the Phillipines has made her complacent, she reacted with genuine surprise: "Why no! Every day is a learning experience, there is so much to learn, and so many more books coming out every day." Wow. She wasn’t even thinking about competition or business, she just wanted to get the books to the people. "What if I wanted to open up a bookstore? I’d have no chance against you, right?" the interviewer asked. "No, no! I’d sell you the books wholesale, so you could open up your own store and sell them at the same price as me!" I got teary-eyed just listening to her. What an amazing woman. I wish I could just listen to her tell modest stories and talk about the world, all the while recognizing that she is one of the most impressive entrepreneurs of our time.
So why is the title about my Mom? Well, my mom is this kind of person. She has that special brand of goodness in which one gives without even thinking of it as a gift. She changes the world every day with her hope and her optimism, her sincere desire to help people. I’ve found myself getting frustrated sometimes in the face of her eternal optimism, telling myself she’s naive, but when I think about it I realize my frustration is with myself at not having the pure trusting and giving spirit that she has. She doesn’t try to see the good in everything; she does see the good in everything. That’s why she’s my amazing mom, and I hope I can learn to be more like her.
