Your mother was right when she told you to be nice to everyone.
The people you meet on the way in are the same people you meet on the way out. It’s just that sometimes those people are not exactly the same person but that person’s son or grandson.
In honor of Mother’s Day and the Wisdom of Mothers, we present this reminder.
Bitchy may be cool in a bar if you’re a drag queen doing a dead-on imitation of Bette Davis (right). Cruel but Fair may really hit the spot if you’re a judge stuffed into a black t-shirt on American Idol. But mother leans over your shoulder once again to whisper the cautionary word, to impart the wisdom of survival:
Be nice! O ye fearsome beauties, ye long-limbed youths! Be nice to those many Mr. Wrongs that waste your time. A simple “No thanks” accompanied by a warm, understanding smile is all that is needed.
Be firm, of course; be blunt if you must; but always be (all together now) …
For behold! The Evolution of Hot
Get the point?
Ah, fill the cup — what boots it to repeat
How time is slipping underneath our feet:
Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday,
Why fret about them if today be sweet!
But leave the wise to wrangle, and with me
The quarrel of the universe let be:
And in some corner of the hubbub coucht:
Make game of that which makes as much of thee.
— two quatrains from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
More about Gay Sons and their Mothers
