“Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”
I love the lyric but it took me awhile to get the songwriter’s message.
I thought when I got married my life would be perfectly and eternally blissful, after all what could two people madly in love ever find to fight about?
But when I realized how many differences we actually had, I despaired that ours was a bad marriage.
And then I saw how much light there can be between perfect and irredeemable.
Thank you Leonard Cohen!
RetroFlash / 100 Words
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
Characterizations:
moving, right on!
Dana,
You’ve hit on the No. 1 misconception we all have when we get married, especially for the first (or second) time. Before long, our idea and definitioln of perfection start to change to accommodate reality. And part of that reality is that perfection doesn’t just happen on its own; it takes a ton of work from both partners. I’m glad you chose Cohen to illustrate the importance of those cracks and that light that it allows it to help show us how to get back on the path to perfection.
Thanx Jim!
And I guess marriage is like much else – if we don’t get it perfect (or near perfect) the first time, we try again!
Seems we both did, didn’t we!
Leonard was a true philosopher and such an interesting man – from Orthodox Jew to practicing Buddhist. And as we know, perfect is the enemy of good!
Indeed Betsy, Leonard Cohen was a wonderfully talented and interesting guy.
We were in Montreal, his native city, a year or so after his death and saw the wonderful exhibit of his life and music at the Musee D’Arte Contemporain. Later the exhibit came to New York’s Jewish Museum where it was necessarily scaled down but still wonderful!
There is so much wisdom in accepting that “there is a crack in everything.
No such thing as perfection.
Thanx Laurie, that’s my philosophy too!
I like the way you put the twist in the end of the story—and a sweet one too. Cohen was an amazing poet and that’s a great quote.
Thanx Khati! Luckily I was in Montreal while the wonderful exhibit of Leonard Cohen’s life and work was mounted at the Musee D’Arte Contemporain! And we also went to his grave!
The thing about Leonard that most amazes me is that, the older he got, the more interesting his voice became. Young Leonard is…OK. Not a bad singer at all, but not a voice I’d go out far of my way to hear. But as he aged, his voice got lower and gruffer. To me it conveyed, supported, the emotional content of his songs much more effectively. At some point it became absolutely compelling. For me, classic Leonard is elderly Leonard.
Reading your comment and thinking about Leonard’s elder voice I know just what you mean and agree Dave!