"Kaizen": an excerpt from the wedding diaries

My horoscope this week mentioned an advertisement for Barclays Bank that read: "Welcome to the never-ending brainstorm session." In the same breath of astrological wisdom, it echoed the similarities to the ethic at Toyota - Kaizen, "a Japanese word meaning "continuous improvement," though it can also be translated as "to take apart and put back together in a better way." A blend of these attitudes is what I recommend to you during the coming weeks, Virgo: *kaizen* meets the never-ending brainstorm."

I just had a spark of illumination while reading this and am wondering how Kaizen relates to what I've been through with my relationship with my main squeeze, and if that is a forever never-ending brainstorm that will deconstruct us and put us back together in a better way sort-of-way? That seems like continuous self-improvement...

I also think it's interesting that in Jewish wedding vows, there is no "till death do you part" clause. And, I still wonder why anyone gets married in the first place. I feel like I've been married for at least the past 4 years, so it comes as little surprise why the honeymoon excitement is lacking for all things party-planning. There is a reason that budding newlyweds can get hitched in record time and think about things later. Because simply: if you think too hard about too many things all at once in the face of all things legally married, you're bound to flip out - at least a little bit.

I find myself resipiscent after having signed the marriage papers. It was at once a relief and a subtle form of entrapment, one that made highly palpable what I had committed myself to. It was a shedding of the weight of all the questioning and analyzing, and a refreshing step forward, instride with my special K in a way that (I daresay) we hadn't been in a long time. There was a part of me that was pleasantly surprised by that last bit, and the little skeptic on my shoulder squawked something in regards to how long that would last... Time will tell. But the trappings of this situation weigh differently than the pressures of "are we going to do this, or not?" ... and the subsequent banter that ensued. I feel like I've shut the gate on that issue, obviously resoving to carry on into other pastures, with new fencelines to learn and other gates to cross.