I'm writing this column on a day that's been declared an official bummer.

A man from Wales, not just any man but a psychologist, and not just any psychologist but a clinical one, has developed a mathematical equation which states conclusively that the third Monday of January is the most depressing day of the year.

Cliff Arnall, or "Dr. Feelbad" as he's probably known to friends, made his calculations based on factors such as gloomy weather, lack of daylight, holiday spending debt, already-broken New Year's resolutions and "other morose variables."

For those brave souls who tilt their faces toward sunbeams, create new resolutions daily, and carry their debt all year long anyway, it's merely the "other morose variables" that provide a fresh challenge.

Sometimes the sullen specifics are unique to each person. Most other times you can locate a friend whose variables are similarly morose. Either way, you can find uplifting solutions together — or have a good laugh, knowing the answers will be revealed in time. Hope could cometh in the morning. Maybe it will even cometh later tonight.

Many people are just so glad the holidays are over that a readjustment of thoughts and goals — while gazing into the wide-open landscape of bare trees and possibilities — is actually rather nice.

Martin Luther King, no stranger to downers, was born in the stark of winter and dreamt of seeing a mountaintop, perhaps covered in sparkling snow. He said, "Sometimes I get discouraged and feel my work's in vain, but then I feel the pull of God and my soul rises up again."

So feel the exhilaration of all possibilities no matter what day it is. Lift your face to the sun, don't ski into a tree, and don't let a cynical, I mean clinical, psychologist's mathematical equation throw you off the trail. March on triumphantly, laughing at every morose variable in your path.