My mother is a Martha; her best friend, a Mary. My mother raised five children while working, for almost all of her adult life, as a schoolteacher. My mother’s best friend had, well, more fun.1 Which is why my mother, as she cooked dinner or sat correcting spelling tests while her friend cheered on the Buffalo Bills in the next room, would recall the gospel story of Martha and Mary. As recounted in the Gospel of Luke, the sisters Martha and Mary are intimate friends and followers of Jesus. When Jesus visits their home, Martha busies herself in the […]
