Wednesday's Child

On Monday, Amber shared information from her natal chart, and we talked about our signs and personality traits on the podcast. I read Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs and Love Signs as a teen, happily absorbing as much as I could about the specific traits assigned by the order of the celestial bodies at the time of our birth. I’ve seen enough in my lifetime to believe it, but still, I have to wonder whether we are somehow influenced by that belief so that it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. And what about our environment and experiences? How do upbringing, genetics, and personal history fit into the equation? It’s the age-old debate about nature vs. nurture.

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace.

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go.

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living.

And the child born on the Sabbath day

Is fair and wise, happy and gay.*

In her blog, Amber mentioned being born on a Monday, and the associated characteristics of someone born on that day. When I first read it, it reminded me of a song I heard as a child, performed by singer Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. The folksy ballad, renamed “Wednesday’s Child,” played with the arrangement of the words a bit, but the poignant message remained…some of us seem to be born with a little black cloud over our heads. Aside from my love of Paul Revere and the Raiders, one of the reasons this message stuck with me is because I am a Wednesday’s child.

In the song, Lindsay croons, “...but Wednesday’s child is full of woe. Woe, I know, for I am Wednesday’s child.’ Even as a young child, that verse haunted me. I feared it because I didn’t want to live a life of woe, but I felt I was destined for it. And in many ways I have. I was first diagnosed with anxiety and depression when I was 21, following my divorce from my first husband. I’m sure my doctor prescribed the Xanax thinking it was a short-term solution to the situational stress of suddenly finding myself a single parent of a 2-year-old with no way to support us. It only made me feel worse, so I stopped taking it. Over the years, I’ve had multiple doctors prescribe various antidepressants without so much as a suggestion to get counseling or any indication that they understood my mental state was more than “situational.” Even though I repeatedly informed them that my melancholy had been present since I was a child, doctors always treated me as though a few weeks of pills would get me out of my slump and I’d go back to being the happy housewife and productive employee, but it never worked that way.

Throughout the years, I would have happy times and sad times that would cycle like a roller coaster, but through it all, even in the happy times, there was this underlying feeling of disappointment, loneliness, and neglect, often associated with my derelict upbringing. I felt out of place, unwanted, unloved, and desperate to feel better – so much so that I made plans with my sister to run away when I was 10, and I actually did it when I was 15. Was this all because I was born on a Wednesday? Or rather, was I born on a Wednesday because this sadness was my destiny? 

Believe me, I don’t think God or the Universe conspired to make my parents poor, or that they were forced to marry when they were young and immature just so that I would have to live with the consequences. I don’t know if I was meant to be sad, or if the sadness affects everyone who is born on a Wednesday, but I don’t think I willed myself into sadness so that I would fit the lines of some nursery rhyme. There is no doubt that the circumstances of my childhood were fraught with significant experiences that created a profound sense of despair and anxiety.  It was bound to happen. A perfect storm, as they say. And I was born on a Wednesday, as was my mother. Oddly enough, though, Mark Lindsay was not actually a Wednesday’s child, but rather Monday’s child…fair of face (certainly).

What do you think? Do you fit the poem? Do you know others who do? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments or join the conversation over on our Facebook group MMC Chat.

*  Wednesdays Child, Wikepdia.org