March 8, 2024

I read an interesting article this week about Elephant Paths. 

Falling down the rabbit hole I discovered these paths were also called “Desire Lines” and are by definition “an informal path that pedestrians prefer to take from one location to other rather than using a sidewalk or other official route".

You’ve probably seen elephant paths all over your neighborhood.  I see them everywhere now - cutting a corner here, skipping the steps up a hill, or winding through a park.

I like the name ‘desire lines’, too – because it acknowledges that we forge our own paths.   And we don’t just make a path out of convenience or short cutting – we make them because we feel the ebb and flow – the pull of something unkown– that takes us in a new direction.  And we follow that feeling into wood, blazing a trail.  And then the path is there behind us, for others to follow or not.  

My songs are desire lines.  They are rough around the edges at first, and somehow take on a form once they settle on a direction.  I’m following them.  And desire lines, elephant paths, don’t have to stay in a box, on the grid, or play by the rules of a city planner – just like songs don’t have to take on any one shape or form – they just go where they want to go.

Today’s offering is a demo from the early 2003 archives called ‘photograph of you’.  It’s not quite finished yet.  I remember just being amazed that I hit record before playing it, another new path unfolding before me.

Yours,

JR