I learned recently that the third Monday of January is called Blue Monday and is supposed to be the most depressing of the year. Many of us can feel more down than usual as we return to work after the festive period, especially if we also have difficult things happening in our lives already. Last week I called a friend I hadn’t spoken with in months. We had been playing phone tag and when we finally got a hold of one another naturally the first thing he asked me was “How are you?” “Fine, how are you?” was my instinctive response. It took him a little longer to reply, and as he hemmed and hawed a bit I said, somewhat jokingly: “Oh you’re going to give me a real answer.” To which he immediately said: “Of course. I haven’t got time for anything else!”
我最近了解到，1月的第三個星期一被稱爲「藍色星期一」，據說是一年中最令人沮喪的一天。許多人在節日過後重返工作崗位時，可能會感到比平時更沮喪，尤其是當生活中已經有困難的事情發生時。上週，我打電話給一位幾個月沒聯繫的朋友。我們一直在互相撥打電話，終於聯繫上時，他自然地問我的第一句話是：「你怎麼樣？」我本能地回答：「很好，你呢？」他稍微遲疑了一下，支支吾吾地說，我半開玩笑地說：「哦，你要給我一個真實的答案。」他立刻回答：「當然，我沒時間說別的！」