Both Sides Now was written, when Joni was 21 years old. I was never a fan of her original version, but her remake often leaves me in tears — it’s almost like she “got it”, the second time around. She’s much older and experienced in life. The music is beautiful and haunting.
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds * that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As ev’ry fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way
But now it’s just another show
You leave ‘em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away
I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say “I love you” right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I’ve looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In living every day
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all
Ecclesiastes 9:11 “I saw something else under the sun. The race isn’t won by fast runners,
or the battle by heroes. Wise people don’t necessarily have food. Intelligent
people don’t necessarily have riches, and skilled people don’t necessarily receive
special treatment. But time and unpredictable events overtake all of
them.” ~ Translation GWTN
Ecclesiastes is one of my top favorite bible books. Solomon was the real deal — he brought it straight, with no chaser.
This passage of scripture is frustrating, sobering, and comforting — all at the same time. What it says in a nutshell is that we can never “override” God’s sovereignty. It can’t be done. You can try all you like, and still find yourself “overtaken by unpredictable events”. If you rest in your own ability to “make things happen”, you will, at some point in your life, find that the “math didn’t add up” — your efforts didn’t make the difference you banked on. The “other person” got the job. Your husband/wife left you, anyhow. All those vitamins and health drinks and workouts, and you still got diagnosed with cancer. Some things are simply out of our control.
It’s okay to strive, and have goals, and make plans — some of us are too scared to do anything, for fear that God will snatch the rug from under our feet, at the moment we touch the ground. I’ve been there, too. But life has a way of showing us just how powerless we really are. God is my shelter. I can live, take risks and dream — trusting by faith, that God will guide me safely to my destination (where He wants me to be). God’s goodness and favor is more important than my natural abilities/intellect/whatever.
Song lyrics just ain’t like they used to be! Billy Stayhorn wrote the lyrics to “Lush Life”, when he was a teenager. WOW! It’s a favorite “jazz standard” of mine. I think Queen Latifah (Dana Owens) nails it!
Lush Life
I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life…
From jazz and cocktails.
The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distant gay traces
That used to be there you could see where theyd been washed away
By too many through the day…
Twelve oclock tales.
Then you came along with your siren song
To tempt me to madness!
I thought for a while that your poignant smile was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me.
Ah yes! I was wrong…
Again,
I was wrong.
Life is lonely again,
And only last year everything seemed so sure.
Now life is awful again,
A trough full of hearts could only be a bore.
A week in Paris will ease the bite of it,
All I care is to smile in spite of it.
I’ll forget you, I will
While yet you are still burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush,
Stifling those who strive.
I’ll live a lush life in some small dive…
And there I’ll be, while I rot
With the rest of those whose lives are lonely, too..
I don’t have time to blog. I don’t. So, rather than try to talk about one thing, I’ll hit a bunch of stuff, and hopefully you’ll get what I’m going for. Here goes…
I don’t like “church”. I’m breathing hard, as I write this, because I know it’s bad for a Christian to say they don’t like “church”. But I don’t. I find it often boring, irrelevant, drab, and full of “sick” folks…who THINK they’re so much more “well” than sinners, but they’re not. I know I’m a complete mess, without Jesus — and even with Him, I know I’m prone to “falling off the wagon”, if I don’t stay close and prayerful. We’re so easily “scared” by folks who don’t know God. We can’t seem to “get” that we’re just LIKE THEM, without Jesus, and some of us, with Jesus. I need The Good Shepherd. Everyday. The Body of Christ has not progressed, while the world is getting sicker, by the second.
President Obama better have nerves of steel, cuz folks are looking to make him go mad — all the scrutiny and nitpicking. It was mentioned on another site about how Obama’s association with Jeremiah Wright almost ruined his political career, yet John McCain’s association with John Hagee never was a serious issue. Yeah…we shall overcome SOMEDAY, but that day ain’t here. Watch your back, Barack. The haters are growing in number, and in hatred — AND many ”evangelicals” are just as hateful.
Why? Why does a man kill his wife, five children, and them himself, over the loss of a job? Then, names his murdered wife as the one who came up with the plan to kill everybody. Since the beginning of time, women have been used as “scapegoats”, when the bottoms fall out of men’s lives — Heck, it started with Adam, remember? He told God (instead of taking responsibility for his own actions), “The woman You gave to be with me, gave me the fruit…” For some reason, I don’t believe Lupoe’s claim. But, we’ll never know, will we?
Now, before folks start talking to me about the “pressure”, let me just say this: We are growing folks, who can NOT take pressure, hardship or misfortune. I’m so sick and tired of reading about men, killing women/wives/children, because they lost their jobs, or the IRS was closing in, or the sky was falling, or whatever. Can you imagine Lupoe’s children’s thoughts, when daddy was pulling the trigger? How horrific to think that parents are not a refuge for their children. Selah.
We need The Lord, y’all. Too many “church goers”, and very few disciples/worshippers. We prefer “the rituals and traditions of man”, rather than spiritual intimacy with The Most High One.
