Hi all, I am very much enjoying the reports of Joni receiving her star on the Canadian Walk of Fame and her recent performance that some of you lucky folk attended.
I hope this will not be redundant, that there are some of you who have not seen or heard of EVERY appearance Joni has ever made. I work in a newspaper newsroom in St. Albert, Alberta. Publishers send books to be reviewed, so when Pamela Wallin's most recent one came in I naturally checked it out immediately, as Pamela, a TV journalist and broadcaster, well known across Canada, also hails from Saskatchewan, from a little town very near my own hometown. I have never met her, but I still feel a pride in her accomplishments and am happy to see that she never fails to acknowledge her roots in the province we both call home. In the province of Saskatchewan, there are many tiny farming communities spread out across the southern and central areas of the province, and in the centre of each --say-- 50-mile radius, is a hub, a larger town that the denizens of the smaller ones travel to regularly because there are more services there, more shopping, etc. I come from Margo, a town with about 150 people now, mostly seniors, and with no school anymore, but it has a Co-op store and a Post Office, a bar, a little cafe (my sister runs it two days a week), a service station, a seniors' centre, and sadly, no more grain elevator. It is a dying village. My sister, grandmother, uncles, cousins, nieces still live there, and I wish I could, too. It's home. Pamela comes from Wadena, the town at the hub, which is a 20-minute drive from Margo. To drive there is a regular occurence and of course everybody knows everybody or SOMEbody in their family or has at least HEARD their family name! It's a small world. So anyway, I grabbed the book and went straight to the index to see if Joni is there. Of course she is -- several times. Pamela has interviewed people from all over the world, and any celebrity who tours Canada is almost certain to make him or herself available to be interviewed by Pamela. This book, "Speaking of Success -- Collected Wisdom, Insights and Reflections," is a collection of things, said by people she interviewed, that struck Pamela as meaningful in some way. So here I offer you the Joni tidbits. p.26: "Many of my generation, and the twenty- and thirty-somethings too, have tried to re-create -- or perhaps create for the first time -- that sense of belonging. The workplace and our circle of friends can often substitute for old-fashioned ideas of family and community that were missing or that we have often reluctantly left behind. Singer, songwriter, poet and painter Joni Mitchell, an only child, said this: 'My sense of family is that I have chosen it along the way. I have many brothers - blood brothers but not genetic brothers. Family is the heart.' " p.100: "Joni Mitchell is considered the single most influential woman in pop music -- a fine musician and a poetic lyricist with a velvety voice deepened by time and smoke. When I talked with the living legend -- poolside in Los Angeles -- she gave credit to one potent mentor: 'I had an extraordinary teacher -- a maker of writers and a maker of athletes and a stirrer up of spirit. He knew how to make you wild and put the lid on you. He told me to "write in my own blood." He told me this at the age of eleven.' And so she did. She opened up her mind to see what was there. 'What things are you going to write about?' she asked. 'Things that are on your mind or on your heart.' Physical surroundings can also stir the soul and expand horizons. Mitchell, the songstress of Saskatchewan, believes small towns and miles of prairie ignited her curiosity about the world: 'Every morning the train would blow its whistle as it entered the bend before the town of Maidstone ... We lived out on the highway. Traffic then was pretty sparse, but the train came every day, and there were buses going by and the occasional car. But the coming and going of things -- to sit next to that hard ocean, so to speak, and see things coming and going -- inflamed my curiosity as a child. "Where are they going?" And so I used to hear the whistle blow at the curve and run to the window, see that puff of smoke, and I'd wave at the conductor.' " p.135: "Joni Mitchell discovered she had polio at the age of nine; this was, unfortunately, just before the Salk vaccine was discovered. Soon she was paralyzed and was placed in what she described as a 'terrifying' hospital for victims of the crippling disease. She still shudders as she recalls the sound of the pumping of the iron lungs. Joni was told she might never walk again. Although she did survive it all, she gave up running and playing sports and took up dance. 'I celebrated my legs,' she said, 'but I turned to grace instead of speed.' The experience was powerful - 'Every time you rise up from some near-death encounter, you come back stronger and hopefully more full of life. It either makes you or breaks you.' " p.178: "In order not to offend, we must be careful about our choice of words, but it's also true that political correctness has silenced many, making people afraid to say or do what they mean. Joni Mitchell was an exception. She sat chain-smoking throughout our interview, and when I asked her if she wanted to offer the viewers a disclaimer, she turned to the camera and said 'For all children watching this, don't ever do it. For all adults, mind your own business.' Then she smiled, having made her point." p.213: Joni: "I think about what kind of old lady I will be. I'm going to go lame eventually. I've got a collection of canes ready and I'm going to poke people with them." That's all folks! I am looking forward to getting Karen O'Brien's biography of Joni into my hot little hands one day -- something nice to look forward to. Yesterday I emptied the last glass of water -- I have refilled four each day, one for each jet crash, in memory of those who died and those who will grieve for and remember them -- it is a ritual I have stolen from the Greek Orthodox church and adapted according to my own needs. When someone dies, they put out a glass of water each day for 40 days, for the spirit of the deceased to come and drink from before they leave the earthly plane. Yesterday I emptied the last one for the last time and lit a pure beeswax candle made by a dear friend. It will burn constantly -- when I'm home -- until it is gone. Kate du Nord
