Disservice

It’s not raining.  I’m surprised as I step out on the porch this morning on the way to work.  Maybe I won’t need the  Rider green raincoat I purchased at Otter Lake last year and that kept me toasty and dry in Galway.  Yes, the pavement is damp; it has rained.  The prognostications of the weather forecasters have been fulfilled elsewhere or not at all, so far, it seems.  What a great Wednesday ahead.

But Wednesday is not important in and of itself, Ted Deller informs me during the CBC Radio Morning Edition as I drive to work.  It’s “hump day.”  Really?  That’s all Wednesday is good for?  One day closer to Friday? 

Wednesday is so much more.

Wednesday is :

·  a brain-wringing, creative opportunity to plan a dynamic and practical session for teachers;

·  stimulating pedagogical conversations with colleagues;

·  a thank-you note from my daughter-in-law for the baby shower gift, a reminder that she cherishes the tradition of the hand-written letter;

·  an email from a music minister offering to take one of the weekend liturgies this week, freeing me to handle only one rather than two, and then to free me up next Sunday, too, so I can attend an event with my husband;

·  an hour with our son on Skype, finding out about his new digs;

·  an hour with my harp relaxing brain cells that the creative process has strained;

·  the tang of paint when I get home after work; on this humid day, my husband has painted the downstairs bathroom, still in renovation;

·  a few stolen minutes to stretch and work my muscles still stiff after a day of sitting and calculated movement.

Tomorrow will be Thursday, another day of new delights and challenges, exceptional and joyous in itself, and certainly not because it brings me closer to Friday and TGIF.  

Media denizens, language that expresses dismay over Monday, relief on hump Wednesday and joy on Friday conveys a negative message—that the best part of our life is the weekend.  That somehow we stumble through the rest of the week in a blur, tolerating each day only because it brings us closer to respite on the weekend.  Even more serious, the negativity is mired in an obsolete worldview that defines weekend as Saturday and Sunday.  How many of us work within the traditional workweek? How many more work on Saturday and Sunday, with days off scattered through the rest of week?  How many work every day, without the benefit of days off?  So, please, use the power of the airwaves to help us focus on the moment, to rejoice that tomorrow is Thursday, for its own sake.  Help us to focus on the reality of the 21st century rather than cling to a faded and jaded model.

No wasting five-sevenths of my life for me.   I want to savour every moment of every day with which I am gifted, with its joys and challenges and aches and delights

“Hump day” taints a perfectly good Wednesday.  What a shame! No more.  Please.