Ahh Quotes: Finding Light Through Life’s Cracks: Reflections on Cohen’s 'Anthem'

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Finding Light Through Life’s Cracks: Reflections on Cohen’s 'Anthem'

This quote from Leonard Cohen's "Anthem" highlights the beauty in imperfection, suggesting that hope and healing emerge through life's flaws and challenges.

⊙ Quote of the Day: Hope in darkness

Finding Light Through Life’s Cracks: Reflections on Cohen’s 'Anthem'

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

- Leonard Cohen : Anthem -

This is a line from the song “Anthem” by Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist Leonard Cohen. It acknowledges that the world and life are not perfect, but it also conveys the message that hope and healing can be found in imperfection. The “cracks” symbolize wounds, flaws, failures, and pain, and it is only through these “cracks” that light (hope, healing, and salvation) can come through. This quote is often cited as an encouragement not to lose hope in the midst of difficulties, but to find a better way through them.

A singer and minstrel, Cohen's distinctive bass voice has given us many captivating songs, including “Hallelujah,” featured in the movie Shrek, “You Want It Darker,” from the Assassin's Creed Origins cinematic trailer, and many others like “I'm Your Man,” “Suzanne,” and “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy.”

⊙ Anthem Lyrics

• (monologue)
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

The birds they sang at the break of day
"Start again", I seem to hear them say
Don't dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be

Ah, the wars, they will be fought again
The holy dove, she will be caught again
Bought and sold and bought again
The dove is never free

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

We asked for signs, and the signs were sent
The birth betrayed, the marriage spent
Yeah, the widowhood of every single government

Signs for all to see
I can't run no more with that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud
But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me

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

You can add up the parts, but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march, on your little broken drum
Every heart, every heart to love will come
But like a refugee

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

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

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