passionate intensity
in which we question extremes, and you get ticket links to upcoming events!
Hey Hartlist,
I’ve only ever been mad at Joni Mitchell once.
But First!
SUNDAY APR 24 at 4PM ET: ‘THE CHRYSALIS’ 61: ADULTING -
a virtual half hour of songs and chat
TUESDAY APR 26 6-9PM: ‘Spirited Away’ Night Brooklyn
Come have a drink and get a bite-size Tarot reading with me for a bite-size version of the usual fee!
& there is now a ticket link for
SATURDAY JULY 9, 7PM @Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2
**Note ** MY BIRTHDAY SHOW and THE ONLY LIVE SHOW I am playing in NYC this summer. Let’s lock it down and pack the place it’s a Saturday night in STAGE TWO for the love of advance notice.
It’s occurred to me more than once that the year I turned 13 was Kind of A Big Deal in the Department of Personality Formation and Artistic Identity. I mean, there was all sorts of fun personal trauma that helped (?) with that too. But in the space of one Middle School eon, I: started playing guitar, went to Ireland for the first time, and fell in love with - among others- the work of Joni Mitchell and of the Irish poet WB Yeats.
There’s more, but they’re not relevant to this week’s newsletter.
And even though the Irish millennial writer Sally Rooney humiliated me two years ago by asserting that “Nobody who likes Yeats is capable of human intimacy” , I still stand by this passion.
I do, however, stand by it slightly differently than I did at 13. I like him for different reasons. Some poems I like more, some less. For example, although they once seemed SO romantic to me, I no longer have the patience for any of his whiny long-suffering laments about being friend-zoned by Maud Gonne.
And this might? be because I maybe? have more… nuanced? or expanded? feelings about Passion in general (?)
Related: my thoughts on The Lovers card in the Tarot which I know you’ve already read about in my free book which is free, RESPECT FOR TAROT: a new way of seeing,
Which brings me to the one time I got mad at Joni Mitchell.
(I just put on the ‘Mingus’ album because I felt so bad even writing that sentence. :))
On her 1991 album, ‘Night Ride Home’, she sets Yeats’ apocalyptic poem ‘The Second Coming’ to music … kind of.
Her song, ‘Slouching Toward Bethlehem’ is a direct quotation … almost.
Here’s Willie B:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; /Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere /The ceremony of innocence is drowned; /The best lack all conviction, while the worst /Are full of passionate intensity.”
Here’s Joni:
Things fall apart / The centre cannot hold/ and a blood dimmed tide is loosed upon the world/ Nothing is sacred /The ceremony sinks / Innocence is drowned / In anarchy / The best lack conviction / Given some time to think /And the worst are full of passion /Without mercy
In an interview I read, Joni said that she changed Yeats’ words (!!!!) because (and I’m paraphrasing from memory), “I just couldn’t see passionate intensity as being a bad thing.”
… You couldn’t????
(Rolls footage of January 6 insurrection, followed by back to back screenings of ‘The Vow’ and “Fatal Attraction”.)
I remember taking this insanely personally. I was gobsmacked, #1 by the fact that an artist I admired so much could have misunderstood another one so hard1 and #2 by the fact that, because she didn’t understand it and didn’t agree with it she just like… changed the poem??!!!! Not Cool!
But this is not - if you can believe it - even my point.
My point is that I also knew what she meant. I definitely used to -and often still do! - believe that “nothing could ever be wrong with passionate intensity”. In fact, I’ve often made my decisions about whether or not something was right for me based on the degree of intense passion that I was feeling, regardless of any other details. Like whether the intense feeling in question was actually… a good one, under examination. Not that I was doing any examining, you know, because of all the passionate intensity.
I remembered YeatsGate this morning because this week The Devil card came up for more than one of my Tarot clients, and I did a lot of thinking and talking about this oft-misunderstood image. (Addictions, compulsions, wrong thinking, destructive behavior.) And then I started thinking about what might be its antidote.
If you’re anything like me your reaction to this word/card is somewhere along the lines of eeeewwwwwwwBORING. Like, doesn’t that mean Prohibition and Chastity and No One Gets Anymore Cocktails or Ice Cream?
We can talk more about this elsewhere. In the interest of getting on with our day, right now I’ll just say it’s worth questioning Extremes of any kind. When we find ourselves in black and white thinking (This is Bad/Good, Right/Wrong, All My Fault/All Their Fault), we aren’t in reality. And when we’re not in reality it’s hard to tell a true Passion from… well, an Intensity.
Here’s something I might try. If I want to do or consume something I think will make me feel better, I ask two questions. #1, Will it? (Based on past experience?) and #2 If yes, will it stay good? Or will I have to pay for it in some way?
Because I think the true passions, the ones we need, are always paying us as we give ourselves to them; like the two cups above, pouring and receiving at the same time. The fake ones, well, give us a hangover later on.
That’s what I think. I’ll let you know how it goes. I mean, within reason. I don’t want to get too extreme about my moderation either.
Love,
Rebecca
he isn’t saying the passionate intensity is wrong, he’s saying it sucks to be in a political moment where the good people are apathetic and the Literal Worst are actively recruiting online… basically.