To L -LC- Or Not To L

 Not "L" as in HELL - no... 

The question is -and has been, for the longest time- 

whether to LOATHE "L.C" - or not to loathe him. 

(LOVING him seemed out of the question, too; 

sorry, not that kind of Christian here... ALAS. 

Loving the sinner, hating the sin - phah! 

We just try & steer clear of BOTH - how's that?) 

But to go any further with this - we have to identify 

"L.C" here - who is he? 

Well... Who did you expect? 

On everything he ever wrote, every poem, 

every song, Leonard has appeared to be 

firmly in the corner of... the atheist. 

I abhorred that. 

Whenever his name would come up, 

I would ask "oh... him! WHO decided 

that everything he ever penned... thought... 

put in writ, in some form... was worth 

preserving as if it were pure GOLD? 

Who decided that?!?" 

His monotonous baritone voice, 

whenever he would perform his own songs, 

didn't endear him to people like me; 

it only heightened the annoyance! 

I saw in Leo much more of a Chance 

(the character Peter Sellers portrayed 

in "Being There") than anything else! 

That he was from Montreal 

only seemed to confirm it... 

His most well-known, popular 

composition (hello, Zack Snyder) 

his "Hallelujah" always made me 

cringe... aaagggghhhh!!! 

But then I heard his other one 

forced myself to; at the mere sight 

of the title, of course, I expected to feel 

all the more negativity towards 

the man... for that other one is 

You Want It Darker? 

But in order to pass on proper judgment here, 

one has to try and grasp the 

thinking process of the man; 

imagine what he was truly meaning 

to say, throughout his whole body of 

work, over the years... 

While some of it, at times, 

reeked of a spiritual search - 

most of it was obscured by the 

apparent opposition to a Greater Power 

that permeated most of his words. 

Lest that was our erroneous perception 

of it all...? But the rebellious souls, 

assorted agnostics and all-out 

unbelievers were only too happy 

to buy into the foregone conclusion that 

our man Leo here... was atheistico. 

A song that is titled "You Want It 

DARKER" and begins with, 

immediately, an apparent rejection of 

a Higher Power (I'm out of the game) 

could only confirm that to many 

of the lesser minds out there... 

(Just look at the comments on this 

lyrics video, on YouTube...) 

But then - there is that word... 

THE KEY WORD HERE: 

"HINENI" 

and it changes everything. 

Though the early part of the song 

(and, still, most of his work 

throughout his life) still expresses 

some sort of perpetual angst, 

questioning, resentment even, 

blaming God for things 

that are part of Life... 

But then this song ends 

with this one word, 

repeated over and over: 

HINENI - which is Hebrew for 

the whole idea of standing forward 

and surrendering. "Here I am; 

I'm ready, Lord" - yes, all that, 

conveyed by one single word...! 

Whereas most Cohen fans love 

his revolt against GOD; 

still see, in this very song, 

a rejection of His Rule and Sovereignty 

maybe even a "fight the power" stance, 

Leo strongly suggests that he, at least, 

is going with "I surrender"... 

In spite of his earlier attitude... 

In spite of everything. 

As the lone sensible commenter 

(Pete V) states, on YouTube: 

"To fight or to run; such is topical 

human reaction. Leonard chooses a 3rd 

option here: TO STAND UP AND 

SURRENDER. HINENI." 

BECAUSE... 

whether you believe or not 

(but especially if you do) 

LIFE, down here, the TEST that it is 

continues on, even after we've 

departed... for the next stage. 

Hence, you are already out of the game. 

And you've already surrendered ~ 

whether it was willingly 

or not. 

Whether Leo understood that 

late in life or not - 

it appears that he did 

and that is all that matters. 

Many are those who say that his work 

is "open to interpretation" 

(even the video uploader, YARDIE, 

calls it a "cryptical message") 

and the bereft and bereaved 

routinely misinterpret it as 

a rousing appeal to "fight" 

an "invisible enemy"... 

THEY... have not understood yet. 

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