Deep Tracks: Both Sides Now | Jake Haber

For the series finale of "Deep Tracks", we explored the Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides Now", allowing ourselves to be impacted by its themes of personal growth, evolving perceptions, and the wisdom of saying "I don't know". 

 

Lyrics:

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Looked at clouds that way

 

But now they only block the sun
They rain and they 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 that you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

 

But now it's just another show
And 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 that 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, they're acting strange
And they shake their heads and they tell me that 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

 

Quotes:

 

Pema Chodron: 

"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.”

 

Rumi:

"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” 

 

Thomas Merton: 

"You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”

 

Richard Rohr:

“This process of transformation was slow, and the realizations that came with it were not either-or; they were great big both-and realizations… I could transcend precisely because I was able to include and broaden…It seems we all begin in naiveté and eventually return to a 'second naiveté' or simplicity, whether willingly or on our deathbed.This blessed simplicity is calm, knowing, patient, inclusive, and self-forgetful. It helps us move beyond anger, alienation, and ignorance. I believe this is the very goal of mature adulthood and mature religion.” 

 

Carl Jung:

"The paradox is one of our most valuable spiritual possessions...only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life.”

 

Albert Einstein:

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”

 

Rainer Maria Rilke:

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer”