Joni's view of love has changed on Hejira to one seen from loneliness and existentialism. It is as stark and barren as the winter snow she is travelling in. Before love was spontaneous (Chelsea Morning), of challenging cynicism (The Last Time I Saw Richard), of being independent (A Case of You) and of needing strength to sustain it (Dont Interrupt the Sorrow). But as happens with experience people can develop clearer views on love.
As with the Islamic term Hejira (the prophet Mohamed fled to find safety and himself), Joni is fleeing a failed relationship and what she sees now as the interpersonal battleground of "petty wars". As epitomised with the couple on the rock, love only happens if people "thaw out" and reveal themselves with trust, or they "freeze".
However, even though people are simply biochemical "particles of change orbiting around the sun", there is a greater force that pulls her back to the thing that has hurt her so badly. Love. She now sees it as a dependancy which only depresses her more. She is "always bound and tied to someone". Its like love hurts and yet she has to have it.
She tries everything to avoid it. She travels, she sits alone in cafes and motel rooms, and only finds "comfort in melancholy". Shes glad to be by herself and to ponder life ("from the forceps to the stone") in an existential way. She's "returning to herself" to understand why she and her lover didnt thaw and suppressed their feelings towards each other. Its a time for deep reflection on life also and the seeing the hope and hopelessness after thirty years. She is again existentialist in viewing the symbolic granite markers on the road of life. Singularly they are final, whilst in a row they are eternal. This juxtaposition leaves her thinking about what has transcended in her life to make her immortal. What she will leave behind.
However, she ends on a depressing note. Even with her "defection" from love's "petty wars", love will eventually "suck" her back into more of the same. As they say in the therapy books she is "love codependant".
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way
Joni's view of love has changed on Hejira to one seen from loneliness and existentialism. It is as stark and barren as the winter snow she is travelling in. Before love was spontaneous (Chelsea Morning), of challenging cynicism (The Last Time I Saw Richard), of being independent (A Case of You) and of needing strength to sustain it (Dont Interrupt the Sorrow). But as happens with experience people can develop clearer views on love. As with the Islamic term Hejira (the prophet Mohamed fled to find safety and himself), Joni is fleeing a failed relationship and what she sees now as the interpersonal battleground of "petty wars". As epitomised with the couple on the rock, love only happens if people "thaw out" and reveal themselves with trust, or they "freeze". However, even though people are simply biochemical "particles of change orbiting around the sun", there is a greater force that pulls her back to the thing that has hurt her so badly. Love. She now sees it as a dependancy which only depresses her more. She is "always bound and tied to someone". Its like love hurts and yet she has to have it. She tries everything to avoid it. She travels, she sits alone in cafes and motel rooms, and only finds "comfort in melancholy". Shes glad to be by herself and to ponder life ("from the forceps to the stone") in an existential way. She's "returning to herself" to understand why she and her lover didnt thaw and suppressed their feelings towards each other. Its a time for deep reflection on life also and the seeing the hope and hopelessness after thirty years. She is again existentialist in viewing the symbolic granite markers on the road of life. Singularly they are final, whilst in a row they are eternal. This juxtaposition leaves her thinking about what has transcended in her life to make her immortal. What she will leave behind. However, she ends on a depressing note. Even with her "defection" from love's "petty wars", love will eventually "suck" her back into more of the same. As they say in the therapy books she is "love codependant".
I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars Until love sucks me back that way
i cry to this one, i cry...
i cry to this one, i cry...
White flags of winter chimneys Waving truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room
White flags of winter chimneys Waving truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room
gets you in the gut
gets you in the gut