Let me say this at the top of this Monday installment of my Point of View: I’ve mastered the art of calling out BFOs. Lay that acrostic in front of an electronics engineer, and their light goes on: that’s a Beat-Frequency Oscillator that generates a constant sine wave at a frequency that is offset from the intermediate frequency of the receiver (Wikipedia). But I’m a language engineer; for me, a BFO is the Blinding Flash of the Obvious. Here’s the big BFO today: last week was a chance for women to hit the headlines, in a world where men are more likely to be in-the-news – dictators, candidates, murderers, billionaires, high-flyers – more than the women on whom they depend. What made last week notable?

I guess the answer to that depends on one’s paradigm. If your window-on-your-world opens on politics and courtrooms, Stormy Daniels and Fani Willis – with a sprinkling of Judge Aileen Cannon – might be in view. If culture is your context, the Met Gala drew more photographers last Monday than the sidewalk outside the courtroom across town where the hush-money hash-out is grinding forward. 

Coverage for the annual fund raiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art moved campus protestors in America or Hamas negotiations in the Middle East to page 2 priority. Attendance was capped at 600 people; cost for a single ticket was $75,000, though you could pick up a table-for-ten package for $350,000. The individual expenses for the designer duds that would dazzle on the red carpet were open season, once your ticket was secured. As the old class-defining line goes, if you have to ask what it costs, you probably can’t afford it. You probably sent regrets and missed the affair…

With no gender conflict intended, the Met Gala highlights far more women than men. This year’s exception was Gustav Magnar Witzoe, 31-year-old Norwegian billionaire scion of his father’s fish farming empire. He came to New York to compete with the ladies: “I’m a bit more interested in fashion than average, and when Versace says they want to dress me up, I think it’s fun.” He came dressed as a salmon… in a dress only a fashionista could love. Google him; you won’t believe it.

A few days later – after the best-dressed lists had circulated ad-nauseum and headlines returned to protests and Putin – the attention shifted back to the mainstream. What are the big days; who belongs on the red carpet, in real life?

Some parts of our continuing existence manage to get recognition when they wrangle the designation of “national-day-of” status. Today – May 13^th – is Make Lunch Count Day, Peach Cobbler Day, Scrabble Day, Thomas Jefferson Day, and the list bleeds into tomorrow, when Gardening, Dolphins, Pecans and Ex-Spouses (no kidding!) take the priority. Like stars in a cloudless night sky, the perceived recognitions that have been cemented into the calendars become so diffuse they disappear.

Except for yesterday: nothing moves Mother’s Day from its preeminent status. In church land, the annual remembrances include Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving… and Mother’s Day. The turnout tells the story: everyone has a mom, and – unless convicted for something heinous – she finally received some well-earned-and-deserved honor yesterday for a lifetime of sacrifice and service to her family. 

Abraham was promised an extraordinary future in God’s plan for humanity, but the blessings would not commence until Sarah was activated:

“I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her:” (Genesis 17:16).

Moms have never been optional in God’s planning; the party doesn’t start without them!

The gowns from the Gala will be in a rag bag in the days ahead, but the imprint on generations future is indelibly pressed into us all by the mom who accepted her assignment from her Creator to impact eternity through her care and nurture of the next generation.

Great job, Cheri! Thanks, Shannon and Erin, for being great moms to my grandkiddos!

Bob Shank