Thank you, Joni

Just her presence, to say nothing of her song, soothed my soul.

By Mary Daily

As a Baby Boomer who came of age in the late ’60s and early ’70s, I was comforted by Joni Mitchell’s appearance and performance at this year’s Grammys — amazingly, her first time to sing at the awards ceremony. I was teary by the time she finished “Both Sides Now.”

The world is so different now than when she first sang for us and wrote her songs, which have only taken on more meaning and depth with the passage of time.

Scary things are going on. Our democracy, the cornerstone of our country, is under siege. We are surrounded by thousands of people who have no place to live but on sidewalks or under a freeway. We face frequent reminders that our environment may be headed toward destruction. We live in a state of anxiety, wondering just how bad things will get in our lifetime, let alone in the lives of those coming after us.

But seeing and hearing Joni sing in her beautiful, resonant, 80-year-old voice a song whose message we long to embrace now more than ever, soothed the stress within me. It felt a bit like going to Grandma’s for Sunday dinner, where the meatloaf and mashed tomatoes were like no other and always tasted the same. It was grounding — the fact that Joni is still with us and willing to make the extraordinary effort to come out and perform for us. Like, somehow, everything’s gonna be OK.

Maybe it won’t be, but bless her heart for being there and reminding us that when something’s lost, something’s gained, and that much of life is about perspective.

Mary Daily is a writer in Los Angeles and Wake Forest, NC.