The busy month of May...

by Mary Reiman

May is for May Day.  May is for Mother’s Day. May is for mayhem. 

First and foremost, May is for May Day!  And if you are one of the lucky ones who have friends and neighbors who still deliver May baskets, be thankful for the continuation of the tradition. Anyone remember May baskets made with pipe cleaners and paper sacks or coffee filters filled with popcorn? 

May, the time to again see the majesty of nature. Yesterday I planted flowers, thinking about new growth and the cycle of life...both the plants and the rabbits! Thinking about the environment, the importance of Mother Earth. Again reminded of farm life, black soil, and the beauty of the change of seasons.

And today is Mother's Day! The passing this week of one of the best moms I've ever known put the importance of honoring mothers into even more perspective for me. She was 96, still fun, funny and loved her Huskers and Royals. She taught in a one room school house for many years and whenever we saw any of her former students, now farmers and business owners, she received a hug and thanks for guiding them through school. 

So, today I give thanks and honor all our mothers, our grandmothers, our sisters, our nieces, our friends who are mothers, and those who are mothers to dogs and cats and other pets. All are so very special...and so very important in our lives. 

May. A noun, especially when we talk about the month. 

However, it seems we have forgotten that it is also an auxiliary verb?

May I? May we?

May I? Two words we don’t use often enough. Two words we don’t hear enough. Asking rather than telling. We seem to hear more demands. More yelling. More intimidation. 

How about trying these phrases: May I hear your opinion? May I try to understand your point of view? Or may we at least try to listen to each other? 

And if we want to get more specific? May I ask why anyone would want to cancel the funding for NPR or PBS? The Public Broadcasting Service (https://www.pbs.org/) is in existence to help us learn, offering commercial-free news, a variety of programming including excellent educational viewing for children. Without PBS, we would never have learned about so many children's books from Reading Rainbow.

May is also all about reading at PBS. (https://www.pbsbooks.org/)

PBS Books is celebrating Get Caught Reading Month, highlighting meaningful stories that bring us closer to understanding each other. It also brings us the opportunity to hear authors discuss their books. You will hear Jojo Moyes talk about her new book, We All Live Here, on May 28th.

And may I ask why the Librarian of Congress was fired this week? She was appointed in 2016, the first woman and the first African American in that position. In nine years she has increased services immensely through the digitization of resources, promoted children's services without controversy and created a more welcoming environment for visitors at the Library of Congress. All accomplished within the budget. She was praised by Congress at their hearing on May 6th. So again, we may ask..why was Carla Hayden fired by President Trump via email on May 8th? 

In spite of the mayhem...

                                Let May be a reminder of the beauty around and within us.