A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, the mother of an eight year old, posted a comment on Facebook about having some "mother's guilt". I haven't been able to get that out of my mind. Most mothers, I believe, want to do all they can for their children and would do anything to protect them. Guilt is what happens when a mother feels she has neglected or not had time to do something for her child. It doesn't have to be as dire as protecting the child's life. It can be as simple as missing the beginning of a soccer game when the kid scores a goal.
The important thing is that guilt stems from the most pure and unselfish kind of love there is. So it's the love that's important, not the guilt. The love is the driver, the catalyst, that can make mothers the most heroic people on the globe - every day, all the time.
Several mothers have told me that they identify with Inga, the main character of Birkebeiner. What they don't know is that fathers have told me the same thing. We all recognize heroism. What is a bit ironic is that most of us grew up with it and see it so often in many of the women we know that we often fail to see how special it is. If Birkebeiner reminds a few readers, through Inga, how much capacity for love a mother can have, then I feel good about the story.
