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Sometimes the road to happiness is unfamiliar

I used the phrase “emotional entrepreneurship” in this morning’s haiku. It came to me quite accidentally, without much conscious thought, but upon thinking about this particular word sequence, it struck me as a good term for the things I’ve been working through. It’s an improvised reference for the risk undertaken in the course of any new interpersonal situation with emotional or personal stakes.

It applies to the shifting sands of my life, from new relationships still engraving themselves into my consciousness to suddenly changing relationships I once thought were etched in granite. Each time one of these alterations starts encroaching on my familiar little life, there’s a period where I can be anything from tentative to downright mournful. The extremity of my response, of course, hinges on the depth of renovations being done or undone – sometimes with the delicacy of a jackhammer.

More than a few of my recent haiku have been crafted toward expressing the nature of said changes, but this is one of the few times I alluded to them in a regular post. (Part of me marvels that I haven’t littered this blog with every single thought I’ve had on the subject.) Sometimes it seems like everything’s at stake, yet I still have very little insight into what it all means.

NOTE: The title (which was also the prompt) for this post came from a horoscope by Holiday Mathis in the paper a few days ago. Not that I read that much into horoscopes, but they seem to have decent haiku potential.

gauging risk

new things challenging
my sense of emotional
entrepreneurship

between the lines

grand declarations
never meant half as much as
what we didn’t say.

driving lesson

occasionally
the safest thing you can do
is accelerate.

(contributed by Marisa)

Friday random ten
(kinda T-Rex meets the Jam)

• Bandit Queen – The Decemberists
• Dimming of the Day – Bonnie Raitt
• Happy to Be So – Over the Rhine
• Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing – Marvin Gaye
• Why Independent Record Stores Fail – Marah
• Thin White Lie – Black Lab
• Serves Me Right – Garrison Starr
• Beeswing – Richard Thompson
• Casey Jones – Warren Zevon with David Lindley
• Cry Out Loud – Lost Dogs

Odd repetition: “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” shows up two weeks in a row. With just over 3000 songs on the machine, what are the odds? Probably not as astronomical as I’d like to think.
Favorite song (on an unusually fine list): “Why Independent Record Stores Fail” – existing on the B-side of a single from a band only real music fans (mostly from Philly) even know about. Makes me feel lucky to have found it.
Cover of the week: “Dimming of the Day” – especially since its songwriter appears later on in the list.

Trouble with you is the trouble with me:
Autumn
Ben
Brian
Jeff
Lauren
Marisa
Rachel

creative differences

minds prone to create
often instinctively chafe
in destruction’s wake.

subterfuge

creeping up on me,
a voice is taking cover
inside dormant pain.

resistance

few things in life are
harder than turning away
from temptation’s lure.

TV turnoff week

Today marks the beginning of TV Turnoff Week. Taking part isn’t so difficult for me, as I might be averaging about 3-5 hours a week these days. Trying to lump in my internet use may be a bit more difficult, though I’ll keep with the current trend of relatively light posting here (except, maybe, for the daily haiku).

(via Metroblogging)

holding patterns

muscle memory
is the guiding force behind
your current desire.

console thermometer

broke a sweat today
just by sitting in the car;
the first time this year.

reveal

none-too-subtle grins,
betraying the state we’re in,
welcome us again.

id

what gravity guides
your sense of self – is it from
within or without?

Friday random ten
(like 15 strangers dancing)

• We Can’t Make It Here – James McMurtry
• Hammer and a Nail – Indigo Girls
• She – Green Day
• Song for You – Fuel
• Crushing Hand – Lost Dogs
• Don’t Panic – Coldplay
• Jerusalem – Dan Bern
• Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing – Marvin Gaye
• Busted – Matchbox Twenty
• Crazy (acoustic) – Seal

YouTube pick of the week: a live rendition of the McMurtry song, which I might have never heard of had it not been covered by Shawn Mullins at a show I got to see for free.
Blame it on the Raina: I just downloaded “Jerusalem” this past Monday after watching Raina Rose cover it on Sunday evening. Absolutely irreverent and funny. Also makes two songs on the same list that I discovered because of performances by someone other than the original artists.
If I could be a real singer and have just one voice: It would be Seal’s

The people who we are:
Autumn
Brian
Ben
Fred
Jeff
Lauren
Marisa
Rachel

two-forty-sixty

hard to imagine
any coherent reason
for what we have seen.

measures of permanence

scratching the surface
to find us carving our names
on virtual trees.

Meritocracy mythology

“America is still living off its reputation as a meritocracy where working hard can earn you a piece of the American Dream, but the economic realities are telling a different story.”
- Robyn Blumner (from the column “The new U.S. economy: Rags to…rags“)

This might be the best anyone’s been able to verbalize my displeasure with one of the most disturbing trends in our economy: Not just that there is a widening gap between the rich and everyone else, but how that gap seems to be codifying itself into our economic reality.

Click here to read Robyn Blumner’s column.

common affliction

insecurity,
like a ghost, haunts us all at
varied intervals.

rivulets

early morning rain
destined to become more than
nature’s lullabye.