I've known this song for pretty much my whole life…and as a kid, I never liked it. It was played endlessly, along with Neil Young, the Barenaked Ladies, The B-52s, and Sinead O'Connor, on my childhood roadtrips across Newfoundland…I'd often try to drown it out by blasting my discman through headphones. But now I'm older. I've graduated from high school. I have a driver's license. I approached and surveyed 100 people for my honors thesis. I've graduated from university. I bought my own car. I play in a band. I've traveled to Europe and Japan. I've taken probably over 30,000 pictures in the past 7 years. I moved away from home. I've taken care of a parrot and dozens of other pets. I remember meeting my baby cousin in 1998, and I remember seeing my grandfather just before his death in 2003. And last month, I went to the funeral and burial of a friend only a few years older than myself. Now I have a different appreciation for the message in this song. Even though I'm still only 25 with no children of my own, the song really speaks to me now, and when I listen to it, I feel old enough to relate. Where I turned it off years ago, now it brings a tear to my eye.
What song am I talking about?
"The Circle Game", by Joni Mitchell.
Yesterday, a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful, when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons, they go round and round
and the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return
We can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round in the circle game
Loading contexts...
