Read Online Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell by Katherine Monk - Free Book Online Page A

through creation we can be redeemed. “Creation—that is the great redemption from suffering,” says Nietzsche. 36 “But that the creator may exist, that itself requires suffering and much transformation.” Finding “the dancing god within” is a process, because humankind is a work in progress. As Heidegger says: “Being’s poem, just begun, is man.” 37
    Mitchell the poet, the singer, and the dancer let her life become a living testament to creative courage. The ire and the irritation in the face of humanity’s stunted growth is always present in her oeuvre, but thanks to her unflagging creative output, she found a sense of palpable inner peace and wholeness that echoes through her final album as she urges us to “let our little lights shine” on all the good and all the bad. There is integration and acceptance of the human duality and, through this achievement, she can rejoice in her existence.
    Nietzsche says, “You need chaos in you to give birth to a dancing star,” 38 and Mitchell combusted without compare. Her life lights up the night sky like a continuous big bang. She is a true star, but she’s not seeking followers. She’s seeking to enlighten, as the last words she utters on a recording make perfectly clear. The final track on Shine is an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” and it underscores the potential for all human beings to find the same balance and pulsing heavenly brilliance.
    If you can keep your head
While all about you
People are losing theirs and blaming you
If you can trust yourself
When everybody doubts you
And make allowance for their doubting too.
    If you can wait
And not get tired of waiting
And when lied about
Stand tall
Don’t deal in lies
And when hated
Don’t give in to hating back
Don’t need to look so good
Don’t need to talk too wise.
    If you can dream
And not make dreams your master
If you can think
And not make intellect your game
If you can meet
With triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same.
    If you can force your heart
And nerve and sinew
To serve you
After all of them are gone
And so hold on
When there is nothing in you
Nothing but the will
That’s telling you to hold on!
Hold on!
    If you can bear to hear
The truth you’ve spoken
Twisted and misconstrued
By some smug fool
Or watch your life’s work
Torn apart and broken down
And still stoop to build again
With worn out tools...
    If you can fill the journey
Of a minute
With sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
Then
The Earth is yours
And Everything that’s in it
But more than that
I know
You’ll be alright
You’ll be alright...
    Thus sang Joni Mitchell.
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Songs from this chapter
    â€œIn France They Kiss on Main Street”
    â€œThis Place”
    â€œShine”
    â€œIf”

Afterword
    The Joni journey ends here. But I hope if you came this far, your journey has just begun. This book taught me that the creative drive exists within us all. We’re all here to make something, whether it’s a family, a great casserole, or a portfolio of masterpieces. Creating is our human purpose, and the more we do it, the more meaningful our lives become. There is no right or wrong way to approach creation; one simply has to move forward with courage and inner strength. The rest, it seems, falls into place—because once we have the vision, we can see the bigger picture. Nietzsche likens the creative endeavour to assembling a puzzle or solving a riddle: “And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also a poet and a reader of riddles and the redeemer of chance!” 1 The bits and pieces surround us like so many clues and mosaic tiles, and the creative act gives them beauty and order, redeeming the chaos of the human condition.
    Many times over the course of piecing this book together, I felt the thrill of creation pulsing within, and it was truly liberating