What is gainful unemployment?

gainful: profitable, lucrative unemployment: the state of being unemployed, esp. involuntarily or the numbers of people without work According to Dictionary.com, gainful is a word that should be primarly defined in capitalist economic terms. Continuing the trend of defining words with a subjective capitalist lens, the definition of unemployment includes a reference to the involuntary nature of being jobless. But what if the two were put together? What if the unemployment was voluntary? What if the unemployment was not a period of worklessness or worthlessness, but a gainful period? What if the focus of all work, productivity, profit, and gain had nothing to do with an economy of money, and everything to do with a personal economy of soul and internal growth? This is the journey I started on January 19th, 2007. I'm not sure when it will end, but I will write about my experience here until it's over. This explains the "what." This blog will explain the "why" from the beginning, and will show what new "whys" develop as time goes on. Thanks for reading.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Day 14

Today was much better than yesterday. I got my ass in gear and wrote down some ideas I am having for volunteering. I have it narrowed down to 1) a women's shelter or reproductive rights kind of place, 2) the food stuff, or 3) starting a community writing center for high school kids and adults. I'd have to see if there was already one around, other than the one GVSU has for its students. So now I just have to do it.

Then after I did this, I went to a coffee shop to do some work for the upcoming Montana trip. It was so great to be OUT! I realized that after the huge snowstorm last weekend, I haven't really gotten out of the house because I went into hibernation mode. If I want to not slip into a depressive funk like the one I was going into yesterday, I need to be out and about. And that might require not hanging on to every last penny I have out of the fear that I will never be able to find a job and spending the money for a coffee to use the free wireless every place has. It was so wonderful to be around people and hear hustle and bustle around me while I worked.

I didn't work for too long. Instead, I realized I needed to find something to wear for TM's annual work party that is this weekend. I've put it off because I'm not a fan of shopping, especially on a fixed (make that "no") income. But, I went out and found a cute dress, and I bought a couple muffins and brought them out to TM's work for a cup of afternoon tea with him. I bought bran muffins so that he could eat a Michigan one and then understand when we go to NYC together why I rave about NYC bran muffins.

Tomorrow I'll have to really bust out the work. What an odd feeling.
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