When the audience leaves, I'd like them to feel positive when

Juice Newton, with the tenderness of a minstrel who knows the power of song upon the soul, once declared: “When the audience leaves, I’d like them to feel positive when they go.” In this simple wish lies a profound teaching: that the purpose of art is not only to entertain, but to lift hearts, to heal wounds, and to send souls back into the world lighter than when they arrived. To leave one’s listeners positive is to plant in them seeds of courage, joy, and renewal that may carry them through the burdens of their days.

The heart of her words is rooted in responsibility. For the artist does not merely perform for vanity, nor for applause alone. The artist is like a priestess of the spirit, entrusted with shaping emotions and touching the unseen places within others. If the audience departs with despair, then the gift has failed; but if they depart with hope, the artist has fulfilled the highest calling of her craft. To give light is greater than to receive praise.

History remembers such moments. Consider Beethoven, who though struck deaf, poured into his Ninth Symphony a hymn of joy that has lifted generations. At its premiere, those who listened did not merely hear music—they left transformed, reminded that even amidst suffering, the soul can sing of brotherhood and triumph. Like Newton, Beethoven sought not only to impress, but to leave his audience with a renewed sense of life’s grandeur.

Her teaching also reminds us that to feel positive is not the same as to escape reality. The artist cannot erase sorrow or hardship, but can show that even in sorrow there is beauty, even in hardship there is strength. The audience may return to the same struggles, but with lighter steps and steadier hearts, for the music has whispered to them: “You are not alone, and there is still joy.”

So let this wisdom endure: in every gathering of souls—whether in music, in speech, or in daily encounters—we hold the power to leave others diminished or uplifted. The true measure of a performance, and indeed of a life, is whether those who depart from us carry away shadows or light. As Juice Newton taught, let them carry light, let them feel positive, and in so doing, we weave unseen threads of hope that bind generations together.