I’ve always hated Mondays. A 2005 Gallup poll found that 65 percent of Americans agree that Monday is their least favorite day of the week, and no wonder. Mondays are when we leave behind our fun-filled weekend for the drudgery of the working week.
On the other hand, 5 percent of Americans list Mondays as their favorite day of the week. Maybe they know something we don’t.
Maybe some of those people are residents of Nome, Alaska. On Monday, Feb. 2 of 1925, Balto and his team of sled dogs immortalized in the Disney movie of the same name arrived in Nome bearing the serum that saved the town from a devastating diptheria epidemic.
Or maybe they’re big Jesse Owens fans. The legendary athlete won the first of his four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games on Monday, Aug. 3, crushing Hitler’s Aryan superiority theory in spectacular fashion.
It can be difficult to summon the energy to accomplish anything on a Monday, but sometimes that’s when our best is called for, whether it’s to save the sick or bash the fash.
Will Durant wrote that excellence is not an act, but a habit. If you want to build a habit, it’s got to happen every day, Mondays included.
At the same time, Mondays don’t have to be all work and no play. On Monday, Jan. 13, 1930, Mickey Mouse made his first comic-strip appearance in the “New York Mirror.”
On Monday, Oct. 16, 1950, C.S. Lewis published “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the first in his classic “Chronicles of Narnia” series.
There’s something to be said for getting away from it all. Comics and novels can be a nice escape at the end of a long Monday. Cutting back on stress has a variety of health benefits, plus it makes life pleasant.
Cutting back on the Monday negativity is important. I mean, who wants to spend a seventh of their lives being miserable? That doesn’t do anyone any good.
So the next time you come down with a case of the Mondays, let sporting legends like Jesse Owens or Balto inspire you to greater efforts. Or at least curl up with Mickey and Aslan. It doesn’t have to be all that bad.
Happy February!
