Jan. 20 was so many things.

It was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

It was the day Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.

It was the third Monday in January, sometimes called Blue Monday. That’s because this time of year is cold and dark and depressing. A time when Seasonal Affective Disorder can kick in. 

I’ve already written my annual SAD story. After all, there’s a period around the holidays when NO ONE is available for an interview. It’s what we at the Great Bend Tribune call “slow news days,” because unless someone commits a serious crime we’re going to be hard-pressed to come up with content. I figure Blue Monday is for reporters who are in that same boat by mid-January — provided they haven’t already used the story, as I did on Dec. 28, 2024.

It was kind of interesting to read that SAD doesn’t apply to most of our readers. “An estimated 4-6% of people suffer from winter depression. Another 10-20% have mild SAD symptoms. And SAD is four times more common in women than men. Although some children and teenagers get SAD, it usually doesn’t start in people younger than age 20. Your chance of getting SAD goes down as you get older,” according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. From that, I couldn’t tell if my chances of having SAD symptoms as a senior woman were 84-86% (20% times four for being a woman, plus 4-6%) or if it was just 4-10%, being as the chances go down as you age. I reckon that’s because you learn to tell yourself, “It’s winter, what do you expect? Get over it!” 

We’re supposed to look at self-care, but where does self-care end and self-medication begin?

I joined a gym last week. I joined on Jan. 16, which was almost one week after “Quitters Day.” That’s on the second Friday in January, because research supposedly shows many people have given up on their New Year’s Resolutions by then. Oh Please ... I didn’t even have my New Year’s Resolutions figured out until last week, when I decided to join a gym.

I was nervous about Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump. What would Dr. King have thought? What would President Carter have thought? Our flags were at half mast for the late Jimmy Carter, except they weren’t at the U.S. Capitol because we were swearing in the president and then raised them back up.

President Trump said, “I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based.” So we’re done with supporting DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion); it’s back to GOB, the Good Old Boys network.

President Trump said troubling things on Monday. He said that our nation has been terrible for the last four years, that the U.S. has declined and President Biden’s policies were a horrible betrayal of the American people. He not only pardoned nearly all Jan. 6, 2021 defendants, he called them “hostages.”

The last pardons issued by President Biden were also troubling. That’s another rabbit hole I won’t go down today.

So much for Blue Monday. Did President Trump say anything uplifting? Yes. He said, “My top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free.”

Time will tell. Until then, I look forward to spring. A favorable Groundhog Day would be even better. Meanwhile, I think I’ll hit the gym ...

Susan Thacker is the news editor of the Great Bend Tribune. Email sthacker@gbtribune.com.