How I See Motherhood
Scott Benner
I saw a movie back in 1996 called Microcosmos. It’s a documentary about insects. The filmmaker used incredible close-ups and time-lapse photography that gave me as the viewer the feeling that I was standing next to some of the most amazingly varied and fascinating living things on the planet. Slowing down the filming let me examine each step of each frame in a way that left me feeling like I’d experienced the subject’s entire life in just a few moments. As truly awe-inspiring as the film was, my real takeaway leaving the theater was the knowledge that all of this was going on all around me and I never knew it.
It may sound a bit crazy, but that is how I see motherhood. Each day is full of wondrous and critically important moments. Endless decisions are made and carried out by our moms in homes all around the world. Each step holds the hope of survival, growth, and prosperity, but as important and plentiful as these women and their work are, it goes unseen by most. When someone does finally pay attention, it’s unlikely that the viewer will take the time to learn about the complexities of these seemingly simple tasks. You can watch bees collect nectar and dismiss it as just bugs eating, or you can spend a few minutes understanding how their repetitive act literally makes the world spin.
This chapter is dedicated to the women I know who asked me if my book was going to help their husbands to understand what they do all day. I hope this is what you had in mind, girls. I don’t just think that you are the center of everything, I know that you are. I may not be a woman, but I try very hard to be even half the mom that I know my gorgeous wife would have been if our lives would have gone a different way. I hope every day that I am making Kelly proud, while properly representing all that you ladies do, feel, and love so diligently when no one is looking.