My name is UJ. The first person I remember calling me by this name was my mother. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my mother.

Unlike other children in the neighborhood where I grew up in a hamlet called Sunflower, Alabama who called their mothers "Mama," my siblings and I called our mother "Mother." Her name was Amanda. I was her oldest son and thrid child. She cared deeply about her children and spent considerable time sharing with them. Some of the things that she indelibly impressed upon me during my growing-up years are found on her daily action "laundry list" for her children.
These are the items that were on that list:
1. Cleanliness and Godliness. During my early years I did not differentiate between the two. Often mother said, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." Later, while still in my childlike innocence, I assumed that cleanliness was before or ranked above Godliness. By cleanliness she meant that I should keep my physical body clean and healthy, as well as my clothing, our house, yard, and our surroundings. This also meant that I should have a "clean mouth," translated to mean that I should always "tell the truth." As I approached my teens, Mother taught me to put God first and to honor Him more than I did anybody or anything.
2. Discipline. Although during the first thirteen years of my llfe, prior to my father's death, he was the disciplinarian in our home, my mother in a gentle, yet steadfast way, disciplined her children. She taught me by example that self-discipline is preeminent and ultimately the only kind of discipline that really matters. I learned from her that effective work and doing a task well result from discipline.
3. Respect. Mother demonstrated by her own behavior that I should respect other people, be kind, and greet everyone with cheerfulness. "Respect yourself!" she would assert especially during those times when I misbehaved in a manner that was a betrayal of my better self.
4. Education. "Get an education!" I can remember hearing my mother say the frist year I began school at the age of five. And, that command continued during my growing-up years. She would frequently ask me and my siblings how were we doing in school and keep a check on us to make sure that we did our homework. Mother was very happy when I graduated from high school. When some of our neighbors strongly suggested that I quit school and get a job so that I could help her financially to take care of her four Children, all younger than myself, she insisted that I remain in school. But God knows she needed the help. About a year before I graduated from college, following my four-year tour of duty in the Army, during our last conversation while lying in bed in the hospital, she said, "UJ," the name she always called me, "I am glad that you are in college...I hear you are doing well in school and that you have been elected to be the president of the Student College Council. That's wonderful." I thanked her and said that I would be graduating next year. "(It was exactly one year from that very day that I graduated from college but mother had departed this life. Yet, on that day she was very much present for me.)
I lived at home with my mother until about six months before I enlisted in the Army, just four days before my eighteenth birthday. While I was in the military, occassionally she would write to me or tell her two daughters, older than myself, to let me know when they wrote to me that she loved me and was praying for my good fortune.
I have many fond memories of my mother. I know she loved me and continues to be an enabler that gives me strength for my journey, emboldening me to face challenges and encouraging me to be compassionate. I attribute, in large measure, my joy and serendipitous experiences to the bequest my mother gave me. In my "Ode to Mother" I write:
Mother Dear!,
Some folk think that I have your
perceptiveness and physical features;
More than anything else, I got from you the
conviction that I can be, do and have whatever
I want.
Thank you for being the greatest mother in the
whole round world.

Copyright 2006 by Uriah J. Fields