The Sunny Side

After the Cohen brothers’ cult classic, “O Brother Where Art Thou,” was released in the year 2000, my wife and I quickly became fans of the music sound track released with the film. More broadly, we found ourselves becoming bluegrass enthusiasts and passed that CD on to my parents.

It was not long before we heard back from my mother that she was playing it nearly every day and had a special fondness for the Carter family song, sung on the album by the Whites, called “Keep on the Sunny Side.”

The song begins, “There is a dark and troubled side of life/But there’s a bright and sunny side, too/ But if you meet with the darkness and strife/The sunny side we also may view,” and it goes on to encourage us all to make that choice to keep on that sunny side.

As time went by, in various ways everyone in the family learned that this was “Grandma’s” song and even more, was the way she was seeking to live each day. So true was this that one of our daughters came across the sign you see at the end of the article on sale in a shop and brought it home to Grandma, who promptly put right below the TV. She wanted “Keep on the Sunny Side” in front of her and my dad all the time. It ruled the house for more than ten years.

And when you were around my mom, you knew she was not trying to follow this counsel in a humanistic way by just practicing the power of positive thinking. You knew she believed one had to rely on God to keep that perspective.

At both of her memorial services, one in Alabama and one in Tennessee, our daughters performed this song she loved to play. Several commented that we could rejoice that she was now living fully on that sunny side. 

However, before she left us, she taught us a great lesson.  And, so as the final verse puts it:

Let us greet with a song of hope each day.
Though the moments be cloudy or fair.
Let us trust in our Savior always,
To keep us, every one, in His care.

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life.
It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way,
If we'll keep on the sunny side of life.

On YouTube: Sung by the Whites