'Living for the Week-end'

 

Today is Monday – Monday 20^th October, to be precise, which means that I am just a week away from having been living in Spain for two whole months, something both scarily unbelievable, yet also perfectly sensical* to me. If you want to know more about my life in Madrid, you are most cordially invited to follow me on twitter and instagram – both are regularly updated with snippets of my adventures – or, naturally, email/ message/ Skype/ FaceTime me personally, and I will be more than happy to bore you with a rant about ‘how I’m getting on.’ Right now, though, I would rather like to get back to Mondays.

I have never had a problem with Mondays, myself. In fact, back when I was doing my A-levels, I was that irritating specimen who, come Monday, would bound into my History classroom at nine o’ clock sharpish with a cheery ‘good morning!’ on my lips, much to my classmates’ dismay/ wry amusement. Mondays seem to have acquired something of a bad reputation over the years of human existence. It has been the muse for such songs as ‘Manic Monday’ and ‘Blue Monday,’ both of which essentially define this day of the week by its gloominess. So why – why is it a truth universally acknowledged that one should hate Mondays? Yes – I am aware that Monday is the furthest day away from Friday. And, yes - I am aware that Monday signifies the commencement of the working week for many. But these things imply that we are pinning all hopes of happiness on just the tiny fragment of the week that we know to be the week-end. And I am not okay with that. This ‘Living for the Week-end’ philosophy that is so rampant within Western culture de-values the remaining days of the week and promotes principles of instant gratification and short-lived highs, as opposed to healthy, stable contentment, in which loving, committed relationships thrive, and where joy is found in the mundane. 

Photograph accredited to Miss Mayme Wilson

Especially for my peers in what I shall refer to as ‘the younger generation,’ the whole concept of ‘stable contentment’ may perhaps seem terribly dull. But please, hear me out, for I am certainly not saying that one should not enjoy the week-end – on the contrary: I myself, aside from one of my closest friends here in Madrid having departed, have just emerged from a wonderful week-end which – shock! horror! – included wine, and beer, and dancing, and laughing, and so on and so forth. These things per se are not what I am criticising – by any stretch of the imagination. It is what stems from these things that I dislike – an attitude of excess. Throwing your money, your time and your body into one night of pleasure, before trudging through the days until your next blow-out. To me, that just seems entirely unsatisfactory. 

Both photographs accredited to Miss Vicki Alfieri

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, for goodness’ sake! Human beings have the capacity, through our hands, our feet, our minds, to change the world. CHANGE THE WORLD! How exciting is that?! And no - I’m not entirely naïve: I understand that not everyone is going to be Gandhi, or Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King. I’m not necessarily talking in the macro sense. I’m talking about the kind of changing the world that can be achieved through smiling at a stranger, taking pride in your work, and listening – really listening, and really caring – when somebody pours their heart out to you. The kind of changing the world that relies on integrity, and passion, and deep, meaningful, loving and sincere relationships. The kind of changing the world that cannot grow from an eyes-on-the-clock, grumpy Monday, feeding off last Friday’s feel-good rush mind-set. That may fulfil you - fleetingly – giving you enough of a boost to make it through to the following Saturday night, but if you think contentment will be found in the bright lights and the bars, then think again: it will not. 

I suppose what I’m really trying to say boils down to one of my go-to quotes:

 ‘Until further notice: celebrate everything!’ (I have no idea who came up with it, for which I apologise.) 

Don’t restrict your hours of joyfulness! Yes – go out and have fun on the week-end: there is absolutely nothing wrong with what, since arriving in Spain, I have dubbed as ‘fiesta-culture’. If you enjoy showing off your complete lack of dance talent and singing along at the top of your voice with your friends when your favourite song comes on as much as I do – then by all means: carry on! But try not to let that become the only aspect of your week that you celebrate. Celebrate on Sunday as you turn in early with a cup of tea. Then celebrate again on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as you slip back into routine. Celebrate by accessorising with a smile, by savouring every last mouthful of a delicious meal, by laughing out loud at something you see on twitter, by doing a really good job of a task that you’ve been set, by taking time out to recuperate and reconnect, by saying ‘¡Hola!’ to the bus driver (maybe that one’s just me?), by keeping your body and mind fit and healthy, by assuming the best of people, and by throwing yourself, joyfully and wholeheartedly, into the adventure that we call life. 

                                  

In what perhaps may sound like a paradox, but I assure you, is perfectly compatible with all I have just written: it is okay to be sad. And it is okay to let other people see that you are sad, or irritable, or hurt. What is not okay is when you let those emotions consume you. Or when you try to drown those feelings in a ‘Living for the Week-end’ attitude. Living – truly living – for every day of the week requires strength, and endurance – for it involves facing up to fears, problems, emotions, and working through them. It involves overriding the confusion, the anger, the sorrow, and coming through the other side. It involves hard graft; it involves mistakes. But I would dare to say that it will be worth it.

I invite you, then, to drink Life to the lees with me – every minute of every hour of every day. I invite you to search for the kind of fulfilment that will last; I invite you to embark on the sort of relationships that are worth investing in.

Here’s to Mondays.

*It IS a word, I Oxford English Dictionaried it to check. (Dictionaried, however, is not.)