Passing wisdom on to the next generation
“Ring the bells that still can ring, / forget your perfect offering, / there is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” —Leonard Cohen
We ask, as we should, of our highly regarded seniors, “What have you learned from all your experience? What wisdom will you offer us youngsters?”
No one had to ask songwriter, singer and poet Leonard Cohen. In his iconic “Anthem,” Cohen broadcast his message to the world in three pithy sentences.
1. “Ring the bells that still can ring.” Picture the town crier in Medieval England, before newspapers, going through the streets ringing his king-size bell and shouting, “Oyez, Oyez, Oyez” (hear ye, hear ye, hear ye) before delivering an important announcement, perhaps from the king.
What is your important message? You have a singular gift to offer, a cause to champion, a bell to ring. Hopefully, it has something to do with peace or integrity or justice or compassion. Has your bell been unused too long? Ann Patchett said, “The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived.”
2. “Forget your perfect offering.” We live east of Eden, heirs of a lost paradise where perfection is unattainable. We need not pretend we’ve got it together. We don’t. We know our flawed-ness. Whatever statement we make, in words or deeds, is partial, not absolute, truth. So, we stay humble as we sound our bell and proclaim our truth.
3. “There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” Both Hanukkah and Christmas are festivals of light, observed by lighting candles. Deep in December darkness, we broken, earthen vessels once again crave an infusion of more light and fresh hope.
