Monday...

Misinterpreted, Wrongly Judged & The Underdog of All Our Days!

Today is Monday and thank god for it…..Often we dread the feeling of Monday coming around, myself as guilty as the next but today I’m going to take a look at this day and look at it as my number two when it comes to picking things that make me happy. Of course my cup of tea took the number one spot last week so I’m going to continue to pick things that make me smile, make me feel feel alive and most importantly remind me to be grateful in this world and in my life…When things get heavy, it’s hard to see the good parts of our day to day being so in writing these letters I’ll always have a reasons to look back and be reminded of them and hopefully you might feel the same.

So today I’m picking Monday, for a day i’m grateful for…..Even for me, I’m being a bit out there with this one - a love for Monday…am I mad? I think you will have to open your mind as wide as possible with this one as we delve a bit deeper. I know, I know…it’s a random one……I’ll have to do some serious work on this piece to persuade you (and maybe even myself in parts) but I think after a little consideration you might just come around to the way me, Seneca and even the Ancient Romans think about ‘time’ and all of a sudden Monday might look a bit more attractive to you. But even though I’m saying Monday brings me great joy I like everyone else when thinking about it on a Sunday night …I have to admit often there is indeed a slow rising cringe at the thought of it…..but I promise you after we go through a few angles on this, I think we will all be in agreement that Monday’s are indeed a great thing.

Okeydokey so here we go…..Let’s think about it...Monday…..the day we consider to be the first day of the week and as statistics go, we’ll have to start here…I am taking on the uphill climb part of this argument to begin with…Let’s see where I end up….In all the research completed, there is no denying it….People generally do not like Monday’s (on a side note, do you too hear Bob Geldof in your head here or is it just me?)…Righteo, I shall not digress….Somewhere close to seventy per cent of people not only dislike Monday’s, they actually hate them.…Poor old Monday…it’s get a terrible rep and in fairness we all feel something on a Monday which is far from joy. I guess the fun of the weekend being taken away from us each week by Monday’s authoritative hand is why we don’t like the look, the taste, the sight or even the feel of Monday. In fairness as I said to someone yesterday even if you put me in a box, I think I’d know it was Monday just by the feeling inside me. But let’s take a little further look at what Monday means and where it comes from. Going back in time Sunday was officially the first day of the week with Monday being the second. For us modern folks, traditionally Monday is our first day work wise and it has taken the place in most of our calendars for a very long time. Not even Covid could upset this pattern.

Let’s have a little closer look at our good friend Monday and where she got her name….Monday has been known as the Moon’s Day since Babylonian times and this, I never knew. It was the babylonians who came up with the idea of a seven day week. They dedicated five of the days to planets and then two others (Sunday & Monday) to the sun and moon. The Ancient Roman’s then followed with the same idea only they considered the sun and moon as planets too so they thought they were naming all the days after planets. As we know they were big into the gods and goddesses so of course Luna was a big focus for them too. Monday and the moon. Why did I never think of this aspect or even make the connection. Just that alone, has me completely drawn into its name now…I love the moon and now when I think of Monday I’ll think, aw Monday…sure you’re the moon day….How couldn’t we not like you? How couldn’t we not love you?

Furthering my thinking with the Ancient Roman’s and their influence in the naming of Monday….You can also see how how they got involved in the actually language when looking at the latin version of Monday & also in many European country’s how Monday was referred to….Moon times or should that be Luna times everywhere!

In latin, dies luna, meaning the ‘day of the moon’ bringing us straight into our good old Moon Day again…..and of course if we look to the Spanish, the French and the Italians - they too kept this reference going in translating Monday to Lunes, Lundi & Lunedi. In old english, Mōna is the word for Moon. I actually can’t believe by pure accident I found this all out (thank god for random Substacks topics) and worse still that I never knew Monday had anything to do with the moon. Imagine one of my favourite lights in the sky and it links to the day everyone detests….Poor Monday…..Well i’m a big fan of the underdog in life…actually I’ll always shout for the one that everyone is against so in this instant Monday you have my attention fully now and I’m on your team…I’ll now look at you like your are the brightest light in the sky…wait…hold on…you kind of are!

Just to give you a bit of background why I picked this topic for today…apart from it actually being Monday…My inspiration for this letter this week was sparked by a book by Seneca - the Stoic. It is sitting here on my table along with a number of other books. I bought it after my dad passed. It’s title ‘On the shortness of Life. Life is Long If You Know How To Use It’. Of course inside the first pages I spot me having taken my pen out & marked lines and lines within the book that I was drawn to. I suppose back then, and even still now, I try to keep my mind open & I’m always on the look out to learn….

‘Everyday is a school day’ - one of my favourite phrases & I truly believe it. I say it often because you never know what you don’t know & if your mind is open, what you once thought was true or the only way to look at something might get thrown into disarray if you consider other avenues. If you open your mind, all of a sudden, there are so many more ways to look at the same thing. And you might even change your mind on something, something you were set on...as in here, where I’m trying to persuade you to take a more softened look at our dear friend Monday…Is it working? Is she beginning to look or feel a little more friendly? I hope so…she has that moon card and I think that’s a strong one myself…

Before I get deeper in Seneca and a few others, I just want to throw out another piece of research….They say that the majority of people who don’t like Monday’s are people who actually dislike their jobs greatly. So really the people who are dreading Monday, their distaste is motivated by the fact that they detest their workplace or their role in work….So if you were to look closely at Monday then in this picture, really it’s not Monday’s fault at all. It’s actually our own level of personal satisfaction and particular the idea of going into our dreaded workplace that makes us associate distaste with poor old Monday. Again Monday is getting the raw deal really…It’s not actually Monday’s fault at all. If anything those people who say they hate Monday for this reason, probably equally dislike Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday too…They might like Friday…well because who doesn’t like Friday when it comes down to it. Friday has a bit of handy number really…it just kind of shows up on the day and wins the love of the people….It’s nearly like that friend who just turns up looking gorgeous…And you say to them “Oh my god you are after getting real dolled up?”….With their response always… “Oh god no I didn’t at all… I just threw this old thing on”……Yeah Friday….Whatever…Sure Friday would look great in a black bag and could even turn up late and look fabulous….Unlike our poor friend Monday…Wrecked and all she does is peep her head out….

My final look at Monday is at more deeper level and I’m hoping this might help you see it in a different light. I’m going to lean here heavily on timeless wisdom of Seneca and stretch into a few different ideas.

So really, no matter what we say about Monday, at the end of the day it is indeed like every other day even if we do hold funny feelings towards it. Truth be known it is just another set of 24 hours, and it is us that holds the bah humbug mindset around it isnt it? Who has the power here? Monday..the moon queen of days or do we hold it? Is it up to us to turn this day from a dreaded disliked word in our calendar into a day where we bless ourselves twice and say thank god we are alive…I believe the second option and I think this is where my strongest persuasive thought lies…..We don’t know what’s in store for us on any Monday as the sun rises like it does every other day and we never even know if fate might have it, that it might even be the day that we leave this earth. Now before you think to yourself, god Louise that’s a bit pessimistic… just follow me with this thought….

What happens if you die on a Tuesday and you then had wasted your last day on earth full of distaste for poor old Monday. Yep Monday could have been your last full day on earth and you hadn’t given it half a chance. Where I’m coming from here is that life is short and really every day we are given healthy and well on the planet is a good one. Can we really distinguish between one day and the other and say it is less of a good day just by judging it by name…Because that’s what we are doing….We are judging Monday by its looks, its feels and its name….And of course coming back to Seneca….He speaks at length about the shortness of life and how important it is to keep that in your mind….And again that’s the thing I’m thinking about here. Am I giving Monday my full attention everytime it appears in front of me or am I making the call on it that it’s not a great day based on no real facts at all. If I was to be put in a box and then let out to live my life without my phone, a calendar, a clock or even a schedule, how would I feel about Monday? Sure I wouldn’t even know which day was which and then I might just appreciate my hours, my days, my life more would I? Is this whole story about not liking Monday just something we’ve told ourselves? Yes I believe it might just be…that’s the thing….

With Seneca he says that….

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill supplied but wasteful of it.”

I think he makes a lot of sense here….Let’s just follow his thinking for a second….His words as follows….

“Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in a moment, but wealth however modest if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extends amply if you manage it properly.”

And see therefore if we exchange the word ‘wealth’ here with the word ‘time’, then we can apply that thinking to Monday…So every time we decide we don’t like Monday’s for whatever reason, are we really doing our time on earth justice? See we as humans live our lives as if we have an unlimited pass here on earth. And yes in ways there is no real harm in thinking like that in a general way but when you get down to the specifics of life, the brass tacks of us living (and dying), the start, the middle and the end of our our days on earth, can we really afford to be so general?

Why you might ask? Because as I started this point, we never know when our time on earth will be over. If you were to go visit an oncology unit in your local hospital on a Monday as in today, as you read this letter, I can promise you, we would all leave that hospital visit feeling differently about our health and our time on a Monday…. and in the big picture, we would definitely not be moaning or dragging our feet about having to live through another Monday. No instead we would be reminded of the fragility of our lives. The fragility of our time here with our lovely family and friends. The fragility of our family and friends time…The fragility of having the lucky disposition of being well and able to travel through Monday without a chemo treatment being pumped into us. Equally we are not sitting in a stroke unit unable to speak. We are not in a physical therapy room waiting for someone to show us how to walk again. We are not standing at a graveside seeing our favourite person being laid to rest. We are not watching a sick child undergo a seven hour heart surgery.

No. If we are lucky enough, not to be weighed down with a serious heavy cross on a Monday, we really shouldn't be moaning. We really shouldn’t be giving out. If we are unhappy in our work place, we really should just look for a new job and hand in our notice. Life is not long enough to stay somewhere you are unhappy and equally it’s not long enough in so many ways to be moaning about getting another start to our week. In the big picture we need to reframe our mindset around our lovely friend Monday and say to ourselves, aren’t I lucky to be alive and be able to see another Monday? Feel another Monday. Taste another Monday…And most importantly enjoy another Monday.

So this is why I’ve put Monday on my favourite list. I believe Monday deserves its place of affection, respect and even appreciation and even though we might think we don’t like her, without her, we wouldn’t be here. Without Monday, we wouldn’t get another chance every week to start again. Without Monday, we wouldn’t admire the moon even more than we did before now. Without Monday, there might not be a Tuesday…. Seneca’s wise words are a good place for me to round up my thoughts I feel and let me finish with a section of his words as follows. Unsparingly honest but I think he hits all the rights notes here all the same. Sometimes we need a little shake to take away the blur of the picture and he definitely does that here;

“Why do you linger? Why are you idle? If you don’t grasp (time) first, it flees. And even if you do grasp it, it will still flee. So you must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow.

Life will follow the path it began to take, and will neither reverse nor check its course. It will cause no commotion to remind you of its swiftness, but slide on quietly. It will not lengthen itself for a king’s command or a people’s favour. As it started out on its first day, so it will run on, nowhere pausing or turning aside. What will be the outcome? You have been preoccupied while life hastens on. Meanwhile death will arrive, and you have no choice in making yourself available for that. Your whole future lies in uncertainty, live immediately!”

And there lies my closing persuasive thought for you to chew on……

Two Words:

LIVE IMMEDIATELY!

Don’t wait for Tuesday…..

I hope you have enjoyed my letter today…a bit of a different one but I’ve loved writing it. I’ve loved the whole process and no matter what, it has opened up my mind to loving Monday even more than I loved her before. I’ve loved thinking about this piece even when I was getting stuck with what I was trying to say. I love writing on topics that I’m stuck on (I know that sounds strange) because it forcing me to push myself. It pushes me out of my comfort zone. It pushes me to study and research and most importantly it made me think…And I love thinking….I’ve loved getting lost in my owns thoughts. I’ve loved fighting in my mind to find the right route around what I’ve been trying to say and I hope I’ve achieved it…

Thank you always for reading my letter and most importantly have a wonderful MONDAY!!!!!

Until the next time my dear reader,

Mind yourself and keep looking up,

Lou x

PS. Monday you’re a fine thing and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!! Wahoooooo!