by Jerry Stifelman, Carrboro, NC

“All those cliches about getting older and become less idealistic — I’m finding they’re all true.”

Someone said this to me today. I wholeheartedly disagree! My ideals are tougher, healthier and more prominent today than ever. Only now I’m smarter about how to make ‘em happen.

Alas, I’m probably not the norm (I suck at being the norm). In my observations, the older people get, the more hardwired their habits to become. The whole notion of a planet that needs our help to survive is a tough one for most human beings to get a handle on. So on this Mother’s Day, it seems appropriate to give a blog call-out to my mom, Phyllis, who gets more open-minded and idealistic every damn day.

Instead of rolling her eyes at our eviro-vangelism, she has always been curious about what we believe and why. And as soon as she gets it, she does it. No hesitation. One of Tracey’s and my best gifts last year was this email:

“you will be proud of me, i now carry my grocery bag wherever I go, so there is no chance of forgetting. so I said no to bags at the drug store and no to bags at the video store. see i am going through a change. and some women the the change is only hot flashes and sweats, but you and I know older women can change.”

This isn’t all my mom does. She and I canvassed together in rural conservative North Carolina for the 2004 election. She regularly serves at Raleigh’s downtown homeless shelter. She’s also gone vegetarian. She’s deeply involved with Save Darfur. And I’m sure I’m leaving out a ton of stuff.

So here’s to my mom, Phyllis Diehl. Thanks for being my Change role model. Happy Mother’s Day.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 13th, 2007 at 7:55 am and is filed under Green Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.