As the weekend approaches, a lot of humankind plans for Friday night, Saturday all day, and Sunday morning/afternoon activities. What I find completely out of the ordinary is that the same type of planning does not exist for the other 4 days of the week. Moreover, there is a unifying feeling of tiredness after the weekend. Why, I wonder?
From experience I can say that a lot of schedules are a bit more flexible on the weekend due to not having the responsibility of work. However, the same can be said for Monday through Thursday, say after 6:00 PM. Understandably, there is a subset of the population that will frequent a happy hour which can be considered relaxing. It stands to reason then that the break humankind often speaks about happening on the weekend also happens Monday through Thursday in a much smaller and controlled way. However odd, there is a peak in activity on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday which could be understood to mean that individuals do more over a weekend than they do Monday through Thursday. There appears to be an inordinate amount of cramming of activities that happens those days of the weekend. By telling themselves that the weekend is for relaxing, and using the weekend not to relax, humankind is experiencing the effects of stress due to trying to accomplish an impossible task weekend after weekend. The effects of trying to accomplish something and failing over and over are cumulative. This often leads to anger, tiredness, stress, and many other feelings that make the reality of the everyday existence impossible.
There are the few individuals who actually see leisure as an escape to the hectic nature of their lives and they use that leisure not only on the weekend, but everyday. There is a person out there whom after a long day’s work comes home, showers, has dinner, and drinks a cup of their favorite wine while listening to music of their liking in the background with nothing in their brains but the serenity of the moment. Incredibly, there are some who accomplish this on the weekend by planning relaxing time, relaxing activities, and actually using the time allotted to them to cool down after a long week’s work. So, it is possible to achieve the proverbial last day of rest with careful planning and consideration. This brings about another question, why don’t more people do this?
This clearly segways into those who love becoming shitfaced during the weekend. Yes, alcoholism is a real problem, but a lot of these individuals are not really alcoholics, they just see the week for working and the weekend for drinking. It’s a nice division of activities really. Is there something wrong with it? Possibly not, albeit that some go on to drink-and-drive, or hurt their loved ones, but the vast majority simply want to have a good time; though I will never know what’s so good about a hangover or not remembering the fun due to inebriation.
I am left with the confounding rationalization of activities performed based on differing ethnic groups, individuals given their particular time in an age group, social setting, perhaps upbringing, and etcetera, and all with the equal singular issue which remains not being able to relax on days of relaxation. Often a varied amount of expressions about the week commencing rule the late Sunday thoughts of individuals who time after time again complain about the week starting soon and how short their time for relaxation was/is.
I am a minimalist who thrashes about with purpose looking for the why of things to fit a particular space; clutter is not only unessential, but a disturbance to the natural flow of things. When I take this minimalist approach into conversation(s), it dampens the mood with specificity and takes any fun factors out. I am the death of the party as they say, because I don’t follow the generally accepted norm, which is to speak without thinking, to judge and make fun of others, or depending on the party, other things. Because I don’t do those things I am looked at and regarded as different and thus shun from the small groups that form naturally. Even my friends have other friends who would rather talk about me, than be with me. That’s alright, as I don’t really need them to attempt to analyze how an activity meant to be fun, distracting, and relaxing, ends up being a complementary part of the same everyday-thing that they do at the office, bar, café, and other places and by this eliminating any relaxing factors, converting it into a simply mundane day-to-day type activity. It is as if humankind lacks the ability to do this one thing they talk about [relaxing], but continue to attempt it while committing to the same actions (same mistakes).
One thing humankind has always wanted to do was fly, granted not everyone suffers the same flights of fancy as others. In wanting to fly, there comes a time when they understand the consequences of such an attempt, many of which end up with a person very hurt thus unable to participate in all of those relaxing activities that can tire an olympian. In the context of this essay, that is to say that while humankind understands the merits of flying, the current impossibility of doing so, and the consequences, they still try to accomplish it! Ever seen a cartoon, drawing, or heard someone talking about using an umbrella to hover about in the air? Whether in person or some type of video rendering, have you ever seen someone hang gliding, parachuting, parasailing, paragliding, or perhaps in a wingsuit base jumping? These are all types of flying to a degree. Crazy right? Not at all. The individual in the sky understands quite well the dangers and outcomes of what they’re down and accepts them without a second thought. In contrast, there is the person who chooses to perform abhorring activities during a weekend and complains Sunday night (in most cases) about not being able to rest, thus unlike their flying counterparts, unable to accept the consequences of their actions along with the fun that they derived from them.
This conundrum will continue to puzzle me for some time I believe. Humankind has labeled some activities risky, dangerous, and even inappropriate, the same way that alcohol was once deemed inappropriate in the United States. No activity or action, performed with care, knowledge, preparation, and acceptance is ever deemed inappropriate by those doing it. That is the case for those going wild on weekends and feeling sorry about themselves on Sunday night and all of Monday. It seems to fall in the realm of acceptance where as long as an activity is rewarding in some way it is only rewarding throughout the life of the activity, but not after the fact. That gives rise to the understanding that this type of repeat-behavior (exemplary of those that party-hardy and end up shitfaced and complain after) is not due to the activity no longer providing the stimulus it once did, but to the fear that the activity will not be repeatable until some time later, presumably next weekend.
Another weekend is set to occur soon. With the culmination of activities, on Friday afternoon, a new time of perdition or relaxation is due outside of the boring days of Monday through Thursday. Yes, some will potentially use the weekend to listen to music, hang out at a lake canoeing or camping, and inevitably some will do much more intense things like those mentioned, but under the influence of various things that will leave them incapacitated and later wanting time to feel better. Groups of individuals will do what they feel is fun and accept fun with consequence. On the other hand, others will just accept what they call fun and chose to ignore the responsibility they must impart on what they do for their own sake, and in doing so feel they deserve better when in fact, as the proverb would tell us: you reap what you sow. While puzzled, I understand the rationale from whence these actions occur, whether seeking thrill, relaxation, or a mixture. I have no answer to the puzzle of how anyone can continue to ignore the truth that is: if a situation is filled with tiring tasks the result of performing them will be feeling tired. I fear, as long as humankind ignores reason over the collusion of fun-without-consequence, more Monday jokes will rise, and individuals will continue to question: “why am I so tired after the weekend”.
