I've looked at Clouds, Love and Life

People turn up their noses at "pop music" but sometimes it says things so excellently, and actually hearing the words makes a lot of sense. Joni Mitchell's Song "Both Sides Now" is one such.

When one is flying you get to see Clouds from Both Sides. It really doesn't help you to know clouds at all. They remain a mystery. In fact they are more of a mystery. And they get in the way of the beautiful landscapes that you fly over, and instead of seeing the contours of land and mountain, there is just white fluff.

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere, i've looked at cloud 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.

And then again many of us have looked at love from many ways now. The dizzy dancing ferris wheels and fairy tale romances. One just has to follow them up 10 years later to find that there is little of the Moons and Junes and wheels. Unless of course it is a treadmill type of Hamster cage wheel! How many laugh, maybe cynically, and never say what it feels like.

Moons and junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel
As every 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.

Something's lost and something's gained in living everyday. I am trying to focus on life's realities, not the illusions. But when there is so much lose and when one struggles for the win, one's attention moves to the illusory and one can end up a cynic. Looking at life from both sides now is a eye opening experience. In childhood we see life through a spangled veil and then we grow up and see the other side of life, we understand illusion and reality.

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.
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.