I feel the concept of ‘Winning’ is not always so easy to spot. Sometimes victory doesn’t reveal itself until many years later.
For instance, when I was younger my mother lost many battles with me when she tried to force me to make my bed everyday, especially in high school. If I didn’t do it then during breakfast I would be subject to stories of how she could have been a nurse if she didn’t get pregnant, how painful labor pains are, how she raised me to be clean, the suffering she went through to bring me into this world, etc, etc …
I was so determined to rebel against her that by the time I went away to college I would go semesters without changing the sheets. The sweet smell of victory wasn’t so sweet but in my mind I had WON!! Although women never willingly slept in my bed I believe it was mostly because my roommate’s unwashed underwear pile kept them away and not because of my soap-challenged sheets. He and I still disagree on this point; he says it had something to do with my face and personality.
Anyways, I promised my mother — despite her tears — that when I was older I would never make my bed. Muhahahahahaahah!!!! … But it turns out, now that I’m an adult, I can’t stand to see my bed not made. I understand now that my mom has won the war and I have actually lost. Mother’s are tricky that way. Victory, it seems, can sometimes take years to reveal itself. For Italian moms guilt is a very successful weapon of choice.
In this comic strip Winslow was wise to defend himself with what Italian mother’s call “The Ancient Sicilian Madre’s Autodifesa.” … As I found out the hard way — there is no defense.
