My dad used to get so aggravated with me. For a lot of reasons…I was kind of a pain. But he’d get particularly incensed by my inexplicable need to get to the bottom of things.  Whenever I’d meet a nasty person and then wanted to know what made them so nasty, he used to say: 

“You’re wasting your time digging. Some people are just assholes.” 

And you know, he wasn’t wrong. Some people really are. Dad was an engineer; being calculated came with the territory. 

But I’ll always be a person who digs. I’m a songwriter; being a detective comes with the territory. 

Every song I’ve ever written came from me taking a closer look at something.  Coming up with an idea for a song is like investigating a crime scene: I’m just trying to gather all the details, then look deeply to come up with conclusions, and finally, find a great way to file a report with the listener. 

This tendency to look deeper has played out in all kinds of ways.  This week, I think about how it played out at my building. 

The first day I walked into my building, there was standing water on the floor. Actually, I couldn’t see the floor in most places because I was knee deep in trash.  But still, I could see so much potential underneath it all; I was sold, and I couldn’t wait to get to the bottom of it. 

This week, the terrible floors were finally sanded down (thanks Bob Botts!), and I started putting Danish oil on them.  Just like my original hunch: those old maple floors came back, better than ever.  What the former owner saw as a “dump” shines like new. 

Being the sort that likes to unearth things definitely takes more work.  And more vision. And more resilience. Just MORE. But looking at the changes, I’m really glad I stuck with it.  Reader, I hope you unearth your own treasure this week, and I’ll see you back here next Sunday. -Em