MAYBE, JUST MAYBE: MONDAYS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

I’ve always loved Monday mornings. Mondays are the real beginning of work, of school, of seemingly everything. I loved school, not so much for the learning and schoolwork parts but for a place to go, to get away from some of the troubling aspects of home life and run toward friends and sports activities that I cherished. And now, it is because we are the lucky ones, the ones who get to love our jobs.

We get to be part of pop culture no matter our age. To create it, promote it, listen to it, write about it and live it. And while it doesn’t create weekends that are really separate, it has always had a weekly cycle, and that cycle begins on Monday mornings.

We wake up and the action has already begun. We have to check our emails first thing, respond to texts while we are brushing our teeth, get dressed, quickly shower so we don’t miss anything, begin writing and calling and reading stats, rarely having time for breakfast—then quickly head out to work.

But now it is different. We do all the same things we always have done, but now we don’t go. Now we stay.

So I write these columns every Monday morning because they center me. Monday takes shape. And I write them because the feedback has been good, and I’m glad to be able to sometimes speak for all of us. Speak to what most of us are feeling and living. The New Normal is actually beginning to feel a bit normal.

It is by no means a good new normal. But the music business survives, and we must with it. We need to stay safe and stay healthy and social distance and wear masks and take our temperature and be generally smart about everything.

I plan on making it to the other side and look forward to seeing everyone again. It will take time, more time than we thought. But for now, I am keeping my Mondays feeling like Mondays as much as I can. I suggest we all do the same.