On Letting in the Light

One of my favorite quotes is by Leonard Cohen, who also wrote one of my favorite songs. The song is Suzanne, which a very cool, pre-Dave boyfriend once said reminded him of me. (Yes, this was in my "deep" college days.) ;)

The quote, which I like even better than I like Suzanne, reads this way:

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

Besides appealing to my poetic sensibilities (I do love a deft rhyme), these words epitomize my philosophy of life, or rather, of how life works. I find it hopeful, somehow, that a rather lugubrious Jew and a glass-half-full Mormon could coalesce around any given statement, especially one so close to the very core of personal experience and point of view. It's heartening!

Even more heartening is the understanding that life on earth is not meant to be perfect, and neither are we. Perfection is neither expected nor possible in this world, and it is only through the Savior's grace that we can hope to attain it in the next. Our turn on a necessarily imperfect earth allows us to make the mistakes and endure the trials we need in order to become God's children in very deed. It's part of the plan.

That's why, at Christmas and every other time, we should by all rights ring the bells that still can ring. Yes, we are inherently flawed, but our cracks allow the light of Christ to shine in and through our souls, healing us and others in its wake.

And that makes me want to shout Hallelujah (another of Cohen's wonderful songs).

=)