My Week of Being Leonard Cohen
A couple of weeks ago I developed a nasty strain of bronchitis which was, in general, miserable. But for one week I found I could talk like Leonard Cohen. Exactly like Leonard Cohen.
I enjoyed my personal notoriety while it lasted, but ultimately the drugs kicked in and I got my lungs and my larynx back. Then I just sounded like Norm, not Leonard.
But in truth I could never really be Leonard Cohen. I have no sense of music (some argue that is also true of Cohen) and certainly lack the poetic magic. While Cohen’s imagery is full of Christian symbolism, the foundation is profoundly Hebrew.
While I grew up in conservative anglo circles, mostly rural, Cohen came up in the brassy, sassy, sooty streets of old Montreal. His father was wealthy, mine was not. As a Kohen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA1R976aWPs) , he can trace his ancestry for several thousand years. Me, not so much.
So as much as I have come to love Cohen the poet and philosopher, I can never be Leonard Cohen. Which is just fine.
Leonard Cohen was unique among eight billion. So am I. So are you. We are unique with our birth giftings, we are unique with the treasures of our experiences, and we are unique by virtue of different trainings.
There are things that we can do, and ways that we can serve, that no one else can. The critical thing, of course, is for each of us to determine exactly who it is who needs our special giftings. And it’s in that alignment that we thrive, reputationally, financially, and emotionally.
Leonard Cohen was very fortunate to have known exactly who he was, what his giftings were, and who his audience was.
And you?