They’re going to hear from me.

 

This title is a line in Leonard Cohen's "Anthem". Today I am thinking about the meaning and wisdom in  this song.

As well as the music being sublime the words are a gift to someone like me who keeps questioning and searching for ways to respond to the changing health of our society.

When I wake to the sound of birds singing I am reminded of other voices within this choir of sentient observers. 

Yes they have a message for me - the sun has risen and yesterday is gone. It's a new day - it will not be the same as the day before.

Wars are fought again, the holy dove is snatched away and never free. Why that is I can't say, it makes me sad, I grieve, but there are things I can do.

I ring the bells by supporting the fragile hearts of kin and neighbour.

The crack in everything brings new ideas until I die. However the promise of new birth and new marriage lasts only a few years. For example the marriage of ego and conscience requires effort.

The singer cannot join the march to kill, to carry weapons. Yes I know the idea of living in peace keeps collapsing into jeers even though our world would be better if we had worked out how to live in peace. More than a statement of belief it is a reminder that we have work to do.

Their prayers said out loud defy their values and their actions. Anger builds every generation and every century. My rage sits in my belly like burning coal.

But I will not be silent, not complacent. I am not on side with the strategists who design war. I do not want war, not the philosophical rationalization for killing which is irrational.

The question of what I would do if someone pointed a loaded gun at me or one of my loved ones is not relevant. Wars are planned and invested in. I cannot control the gunman who hasn't yet visited. All I know is that violence creates mental illness.

This is the crack in everything, the blast that tells me a new habit must be found if I am to survive. If this planet is to survive.

The parts do not give us the sum.  We find the drum and our thoughts shall march until we die. Because new hearts to love take me back to caring. We are all refugees in systems created by scheming conceit and the worship of power.

I shall keep writing, ringing the bells that will crack because there is a crack even where I cannot see it. As long as I can I shall write, speak, sing and love.

Thank you Leonard Cohen for creating this song.