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Be Sure To Eat Your Greens
If only the ingredients to happiness were so simple

By Ron Ciancutti

Sometimes, when I ask people, “How are you?” they answer, “It’s Monday!” I interpret that to mean the week is beginning and the weekend is far away, so they can only be so happy. At mid-week, there is a lilt of optimism in their response. “Well, at least it’s Wednesday,” they chortle. The Friday answer is obvious. “It’s Friday!” The weekend lies ahead. We even thank God for that day. One-liners like, “We made it through another one,” are common. I have to wonder--do we really want to dread and shove five days aside every week to get to where there are just two? It seems like an awfully depressing way to spend a week, let alone a life.

Giving Thanks
My father-in-law is from Italy, and was raised during some tough times. Working every day wasn’t guaranteed. In fact, for the first three or four years of my marriage, he asked me the same question every Sunday toward the end of our family meal. “Working tomorrow, Ron?” “Yes, sir,” I answered. He would smile and look around the table. “Good, good, that’s good to hear, huh?” Where he was raised, a man who went to work on Monday was fortunate. Many times he’s told the grandchildren stories of hiding under tables during air raids in France (where he also spent much of his childhood), and how he and his father tore into the farmers’ fields at night to take enough apples, oranges and grapes to feed his brothers, sisters and cousins. Few had money or even any skills to use in trade for food. Once in a while there was some work that earned a little pay, and everyone ate better that week. If someone said, “Working tomorrow?” and the answer was yes, it was a moment of pride and thanksgiving, certainly not regret.


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