An Evolving Life. Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now
Editor’s Note: The commentary and watercolor that follow were submitted last Thursday, prior to the calling of the election, making the feeling and sentiment that much more poignant today. It is time to move forward.
Joni Mitchell is one of my heroes, a role model who continues to inspire me. On Saturday, November 7, she turns 77.
As a teenager in the seventies, I recall riding around Lakewood, New Jersey, where I grew up, with my best friend waiting to be released from the boredom of small-town life. The soundtrack playing in the background was a medley of Joni’s songs that still resonate.
One that particularly rouses me today is Both Sides Now:
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.
(Joni Mitchell, 1968)
So apt as we wait to find out who will win and who will lose this week. Although I’ve been quite competitive in my life, I’ve learned that the only competition that really matters is the one that wages within oneself.
Here’s a painting, View From My Bike, finally completed this week on my third try. The challenge was to find a way to marry the scattered foreground with the sense of rhythm in the background.
While it’s not perfect in my mind, I decided that it’s good enough and to move forward. Something I pray that both sides of our fractured democracy will be able to do no matter what the outcome.
Please click on the image to enlarge.
View From My Bike
An Evolving Life Series
2020 Posts
Both Sides Now (This one)
2019 Posts
Click here to follow Meryl’s journey through 2019.
2018 Posts
Learn more about how it all began! Click here to read An Evolving Life posts from 2018.
