My sketchbook seems to be filling with expressions of grief this week. Today, with all passion spent, I can't bring myself to add color to my sketch.
Leonard Cohen's music has a pretty big playlist in my heart. When I was in high school, my best friend and debate colleague and I would go to the local college to study. We would go, not to the library, but to the basement of the Student Union. There, beyond the pool and ping pong tables, was a small, almost always empty 'music room.' It had a console stereo and a stack of records. The record I always looked for was "Wildflowers" by Judy Collins. On it, she sings Leonard Cohen songs.
I was heartbroken when we went one day and the album was gone, taken, no doubt, by a poor student thief with great musical taste. I worked to save, and after awhile I earned enough to buy my own album. Since then, I have listened to (over and over) Judy, and Joan, and Bob, and Jeff, and Jennifer, KD, and Roberta, and Leonard himself sing songs that express the times of my life. The songs of a Canadian singer-songwriter, who left us yesterday, at a time when we really need his take on this crazy world.
Thank you for leaving your music for us, Mr. Cohen. Thank you from a young girl trying to make sense of her world in the 60's, and thank you from this woman, who is still looking for sanity in this crazy world, but who will have to be happy to settle for 'dancing to the end,' loving your music.
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