Bobbleheads

“Stop nodding your head” my mother reprimanded. “You look so submissive that way”. 

I rolled my eyes in a dismissive air. She always finds fault with me, whether it’s the way I walk, the way I talk, or even how fast I eat. Now nodding gets on her nerves? I couldn’t care less. 

“What’s that under your nose?” She followed her accusation with a question. 

“My mouth?” I said unconvincingly. 

“And what do you use it for? Come on… not only to eat. You use your mouth to talk. Talk? Get it? So stop that nodding and speak your mind.” 

Now, seven years from now, whenever I am in a class discussion and find myself nodding along to what the teacher said, I recall her words: “what’s that under your nose?” 

It’s a jarring question and the best reminder for critical thinking. I am prompted to disagree more than I agree to things. In the years to come, I realize that the best way to engage in conversation with others is to not agree with everything they say, or passively nod, but to challenge, question, and contradict points I found strange and incomplete. 

And that is my mother’s gift to me, to enlighten me that the purpose of a mouth is the freedom to speak, the purpose of a head to think, and the purpose of a neck to carry them, not to move up and down like an obedient, programmed bobblehead figurine.