July 29, 2014 (Tuesday)
“Keep On the Sunny Side” is a popular American song originally written in 1899 by Ada Blenkhorn (1858-1927) with music by J. Howard Entwisle (1866-1903). She was inspired to write the Christian hymn by a phrase used by her nephew, who was disabled and always wanted his wheelchair pushed down “the sunny side” of the street.
The movie (2000), “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” included the song among others that highlighted the Great Depression era of history. The song had been made popular by the Carter Family, which recorded it in 1928. (A.P. Carter’s tombstone has a gold record of the song embedded in it). Here is a portion of the lyrics:
There’s a dark and a troubled side of life;
There’s a bright and a sunny side, too;
Tho’ we meet with the darkness and strife,
The sunny side we also may view.
Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life;
It will help us ev’ry day, it will brighten all the way,
If we keep on the sunny side of life.
The first two lines of the song caught my eye in light of the consistently bad news these days. We have a choice. Which road will we take?
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NIV).