Leonard Cohen passed away yesterday. The life work of this Canadian poet and songster actually meant a lot to me and I am sad about losing him. It is Remembrance Day in Canada (as it is Veteran’s Day here in the USA). This day is usually a sombre one at home, cold and grey. I should check the weather for Saskatoon and see what the skies are like there…it looks windy and cool. Appropriate.
We survived the election but we’re still sick of it and nothing has changed — the left hates the right and the right cannot stand the left and everyone is terrified of everyone. The hysteria is exhausting and the journalism is still revoltingly biased (Where are our real journalists? Where is the truth? Am I clinging to a romantic ideal???).
That said, nothing seems especially hopeless to me. There will be no doom and gloom in my space regarding politics. Here’s what I do have to say though, there’s this notion that change can only stem directly from a government mandate. I don’t think that’s true. Change begins small and then goes viral as our communities alter themselves and connect with other communities on the same path.
Change your own heart, broaden it, expand the way you see the immediate world around you. Believe and treat others as though their suffering is greater than yours. GET OVER YOURSELF. Know your neighbors. Care for the needs of your neighbors. Invest your heart, soul and life in your community. Provide, however you can, for those who need extra help. Stick up for the little guy. Stand up to the bullies (despite what you’ve been told, they come in all shapes and colors, they aren’t just white men). Teach your children right from wrong, show them how to be courageous and how to work hard, encourage their imaginations, impress upon them the importance of beauty, help them to love nature. Work hard, stay humble and be honest. You don’t need a federal government to legislate any of this. This change comes from within you, as a result of your choices and how you decide to use your time, your days, your life.
Lastly, here’s Leonard Cohen reciting “In Flanders Fields” — prepare to be moved by his voice, the poem itself and the imagery to go with. This poem is always recited in Canada on Remembrance Day and it always makes me weep, unabashedly and very publicly. I think some of the most terrible suffering for the planet and humanity occurred in WWI and WWII…all those generations of beautiful men lost, the extermination of millions of Jews, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the trench warfare, the bloodshed, the biting winter cold, the shell shocked soldiers coming home and living out the rest of their lives as different people…mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters living their lives anxiously, nerves rattled daily, working themselves thin, wondering if they’d ever see their loved ones again or if they were going to receive a death notice by telegram that day…such terror I am not sure the modern world will ever comprehend.
And so I leave you with Leonard. Be moved. Allow yourself to be moved. Forget your own problems and suffering. Look at the world around you and quit adding to the cesspool of darkness — there is darkness enough. Be filled with hope. Spill your hope into the lives of others. Watch your mouth. Quit alienating each other (there is always common ground). Set your heart right.
Love thy neighbor.
Thank you to our veterans who took all the bullets, took all the shrapnel, survived the terror and lived through hell or died on the battlefield so that I would not have to. I will carry your torch. I will keep the faith.
You are never forgotten.
