>From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Anyone else have crucial "Joni got me through it songs?" Let us
>know!
>
Hi
I'm relatively new to the list and have lurked till now.
I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I discovered Joni through the The Wall
concert recording. That made me buy Night ride home from a sale bin a year
or so after it came out. The lyrics struck me, but I don't thing I was
musically mature enough to really get into it.
Only after reading many reverential articles about her and seeing so many
other artists praise her, I got Hits on impulse. Hearing the first notes of
Urge for going for the first time is a moment I'll never forget: it just
immediately penetrated me like the music should have been part of my life
forever.
anyway, back to the topic. . . (warning: this is quite long)
I was in quite an overwhelming situation a couple of months ago. Joni's
clarity of thought and courage to confront (and the lyrics of Hejira that
kept looping in my mind) helped get me through that.
I am a journalist and 4 years ago in the line of duty I got a bit too close
to the conflict between gangs and vigilantes in this city. (I also got too
close to a bullet, but that's another story...) That conflict has since
blossomed into full-blown urban terror with some high profile bombings you
might have heard of.
To make a long story short: I am one of a number of members of the media
that are being subpoenaed to testify against the people suspected of being
the vigilante and urban terror ringleaders. The media is being called to
testify because the police who were on the scene are so discredited that
they would likely harm the state's case if called as witnesses. And of
course it is a tricky ethical dilemma for a journalist to let himself be
used as the state's eyes and ears. . .
So in November of last year I ended up facing jail time for refusing to
testify. At the same time my wife and I had to spend a month on the run for
fear of being assassinated by the people who thought I might testify.
(despite all that: Cape Town is a great place to visit. no, really.)
During this paranoid time of travel, not even trusting telephones for fear
of bugs and only telling one close friend our whereabouts, Hejira: (fleeing
with grace, to fight another day, as I understand it) really helped me
through. 'a defector from the petty wars/that shellshock love away. . .'
I had to think through some really intense stuff. The sort of things I could
until then never even conceive of really happening outside of movies. I
really felt the sense of Joni I got from her music helped me see my choices
in among that mess. Helped me to not feel like a victim of circumstance and
find and use what little power I had left.
(the fact that Hejira is an Arabic word and that my faceless enemies were
Muslim extremists - and the fact that I'm turning 30 this year - also
resonated with that song - 'there is the hope and the hopelessness')
that situation has still not been resolved: it is just dormant at the moment
and due to intensify again next month when the court case continues. But I'm
sure the wisdom of the old familiar songs will be with me then too (okay,
that last one is a Janis Ian paraphrase, but she is cool too).
Sorry for the long post (and I hope it all makes sense, since English is my
second language), but it felt good sharing that.
Kobus Louwrens
NP: Like a rolling stone - Bob Dylan
