#193: Ring the Bells

Early last week, as I waited in a medical office, I watched an older lady heave herself off a chair, and with the aid of crutches, make her way slowly down the hall.  As she headed for her appointment, she spoke to her neighbour, a woman with a walker. “Life was a helluva lot easier and way more fun when I was young!” Ms Crutches declared.  Ms Walker sighed and nodded agreement.

My inner librarian was a tiny bit tempted to join the conversation and suggest reading Jane Fonda’s new, uplifting guide to positive aging.  But even I know that sometimes it is not worth sharing good news. Ms Crutches likely would have decked me with one blow, and then Ms Walker would have run me over.

In reality, had they been YouTube users,  they might have both benefited more from hearing Leonard Cohen’s thoughtful and hopeful Anthem about living-- really living-- with loss.  Coincidentally, the lyrics were revealed to me twice that day, once in a newspaper item and then in an email from a friend.

It turns out Leonard and Jane pretty much agree.  But he says it so much better:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.