I Love Mondays

I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times. “Mondays suck!” But for two very big reasons, I respectfully disagree.

1. New beginnings are spectacular.
2. Holidays, anyone?

I know a lot of people who get freaked out by new beginnings: the guy who started college just to drop out because it was overwhelming, the girl who stayed with one guy for four years not because she loved him but because he was familiar. Many people I know just don’t like change. They like things to stay the same. It soothes them because they know what’s coming. The unfamiliar is daunting, so they try to avoid it.

Mondays are fresh reminders that things don’t stay the same, that just as the weeks change so do we. I was reading a book the other day that talked about how a band that was just starting off was able to book a venue quite cheaply for six consecutive Mondays because people just didn’t go out on Mondays. And it rang true on that first Monday, but word of mouth spread and that band was selling out their Monday shows before too long. People gradually gave them a chance, they opened themselves up to something new that blew apart their preconceived notions of what Mondays were supposed to be.

I recall back when I was in elementary school and I had an interesting conversation with my teacher:

Teacher: Next Monday is the celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday.

Me: Is that his actual birthday?

Teacher: No, it’s not.

Me: Then why do we celebrate it on Monday?

Teacher: That’s just the way it is.

Me: Is it because we just want to make the weekend longer?

Teacher: I guess Mondays are more convenient.

Yes, Mondays really were quite convenient. Fridays are often seen as parts of the weekend anyway, so making Monday a weekend day to accommodate holidays seems like a novel idea. These Mondays aren’t dreaded because we can sleep in, at least as students and federal workers. Or something like that. I think my teacher thought I was being a smartass, but it honestly intrigued me. I mean, if Martin Luther King’s birthday was on a Wednesday, why not just get out of school on that Wednesday to observe it? Because Mondays were more convenient.

I was born on a Monday, by the way. But it was a Monday in late December, when kids were already out of school for their winter break, and the biggest holiday of all. I hear tell that there was a massive blizzard over the weekend and I was lucky to even be born in a hospital and not at home. Perhaps people exaggerate, but maybe that’s part of what makes Mondays special to me, the ultimate new beginning, a brand new life seeing this world for the first time.

And I’m still amazed by it.

Sam