To all the Hortons

I was reading a blog I enjoy, Mom-O-Matic, ( http://mom-o-matic.blogspot.com ) and poor thing was describing in her recent post (Strange Day March 14) another side-effect of mommy-hood.. trying to make mommy friends and sometimes getting left out of the play date circle. It has been a long time since I walked either of my kids to their classrooms, but I so remember this long walk to and from the car parading along in whatever get-up I was wearing when it dawned on me it was time to go get the little buggers. I was always just a tad late, mostly ready for work, but still had 100 things to do yet, often went tearing out of the driveway praying I could find a spot to park. Once I dropped my daughter off and forgot school got out early that day.. lots of phone calls at work from the school office.. Not a really good mommy. Busy, self-indulgent mommy who never had a day-runner and loved that babies were old enough for school.
I took my 8 year old son and my 15 year old daughter to watch Horton Hears a Who Friday evening. It had been many, many years since I had been read this story and it was not one I read to my kids, but I remembered the plot, I thought. I was skeptical about what level of entertainment and joy this evening would hold, but a mommy's got to do what a mommy's got to do. It was a delightful story, great animation, had fun characters and I liked Jim Carey as Horton. All three of us laughed out loud and turned to each other at different times to verify how much fun we were all having together.. "Mom that's funny! HA, HA". Lot's of line quoting and pointing at the screen. We talked about it all the way home and are still quoting Horton and his friends this morning after church.
But I keep thinking about Mom-O-Matic and her description of feeling left out and not fitting in. I think she is a Horton and she hears Whos. What kind, I don't know, I think they might be different from the Who's I hear. I know I'm a Horton. It's lonely to see things differently, to be creative, to be random, to be enthusiastic, to fly by the seat of your pants, to have a sense of humor that is just a bit wicked and twisted, but mostly just honest. I think people don't get us if we're a Horton and they find it inconvenient to try to know us. We're unconventional. If Mom-O-Matic is a Horton, then I could be one of her Whos.. I hear her right now, and maybe she might hear me (I left her a comment.. it's not like I think she's hearing me). It's OK. There are lots of Hortons in Blogland, and lots of Whos that read her blog. Perfect, happy, shiny, mommy people on the pre-school sidewalk won't always hear you, or see you, but we do, 100%.