Canceling Thursdays
By Kathryn Atkins, Long Beach Branch
That’s right. I’m canceling Thursdays. Of all the days of the week, Thursday reigns as the least necessary. It pales in comparison to Friday, of course. TGIF —Thank God It’s Friday — just makes sense. Right? No one ever heard of TGIT for Thank God It’s Thursday. TGIT almost sounds like an obscene reference to mammary glands, and besides it would have to be TGITH to make it different from TGIT for Thank God It’s Tuesday. Plus: Tee-Gee-Eye-“Th” sounds really inane. Like you have a “lithp” or thumthing. So there you go. Thursday’s out of here.
Now, back to Tuesday… one could elect Tuesday for cancellation. However, it captures its charisma (though it be small, I agree) from Monday, largely because it’s a relief to have Monday behind you, and the work or school week along its way.
Wednesday, as hump day, marks the downward slide to the week’s end. We can’t expunge such an important day.
Now, Saturday, by all accounts, is cleanup day. It’s the scoop-up-the-pieces dash when we attack our life-support junk in a blur of catch-up. We inhale deep breaths, sucking in oxygen from open car windows while racing from one list item to the next: groceries, banking, dry-cleaners, car wash, (puff-puff), kids’ soccer games, fund raisers, hair cuts, a Target run, clean the house, laundry (two lights and three darks), gym class, manicure, clothes shopping, school supplies … Are you with me here?!
Finally, winded, you land at Sunday—the day of rest. Maybe church. Maybe a game of golf or tennis, eggs Benedict, a bike ride, or a hobby. Clean the attic? Make a pie? Shop the sales? Read a book? Take a nap? Stay in your PJs all day? Watch all forty-seven parts of the Star Wars saga? Wow, how do we rest with all that stuff to do? Well, we get to choose which, if anything, we want to do… and that is the value of Sunday. We can also choose to do nothing, which is, as they say, a choice.
Then Sunday night rolls around, and we brace ourselves against the prospect of doing it all over again. But wait. This time, there’s one less day of the week! There’s more balance: four days of work and two days of weekend. It’s not nearly so one-sided. I like it. Don’t you?
Now let’s go back to Tuesday. Should we bag that one too? What do you think?
Read more by Kathryn on her website www.writingworld.biz.