I don't know about you, but there is something rather....ordinary about Tuesdays.  They aren't the start of the work week so you can't really grumble about the commencement of a new week at work, they aren't 'hump days' that signify the middle of the week, and they sure aren't close enough to the weekend to give you anything to celebrate.  They just exist. Tuesday derives its name from the Middle English Tiwesday, named after the Nordic god Tyr, who was the approximate equivalent of the Roman war god Mars, and the Greek god Ares.  In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world, where the proverb 'En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques' translates to "On Tuesday, neither get married nor begin a journey."

These are the cheery thoughts that were tumbling through my head this morning before I got up and looked out at the window...at a world encased in fog.  Not beginning a journey (to work) seemed like an eminently sensible idea, but since I have a new job and very few vacation days saved up, staying home really wasn't an option, much as I would have liked to curl up by the fireplace, sip a soothing cup of tea and either read a fog-shrouded London mystery whodunit or perhaps watch a lovely old black white and movie.  Fred Astaire singing A Foggy Day in London Town in the 1937 Damsel in Distress would be just about perfect for today, wouldn't it?

A Foggy Day in London Town

Had me low and had me down
I viewed the morning with alarm
The British Museum had lost its charm
How long, I wondered, could this thing last?
But the age of miracles hadn't passed,
For, suddenly, I saw you there
And through foggy London Town
The sun was shining everywhere.


But even if we have to go to work on this foggy Tuesday, let's carry with us this lovely thought from the artist Henri Matisse and be a lantern in the fog!

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.