Democracy

Tonight I'm just going to let Leonard Cohen, one of the finest poets of the last century, speak for me.

This video recording of his powerful song begins with Leonard reciting its powerful last verse:

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean

I love the country but I can't stand the scene.

And I'm neither left or right

I'm just staying home tonight,

getting lost in that hopeless little screen.

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags

that Time cannot decay,

I'm junk but I'm still holding up

this little wild bouquet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

I sure hope he's right, and I can relate to a lot of that verse, but this one is my favorite:

It's coming to America first,

the cradle of the best and of the worst.

It's here they got the range

and the machinery for change

and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.

It's here the family's broken

and it's here the lonely say

that the heart has got to open

in a fundamental way:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Here's to the heart opening in a fundamental way. If it doesn't, I reckon it's going to break. Then again, in my experience outside the politisphere, sometimes the opening of the heart doesn't come until after it breaks...