Leonard Cohen - "Anthem"

Leonard Cohen, the legendary Canadian poet and singer, is well-known for a set of powerful lyrics from his song “Anthem,” off the 1992 album The Future. The message, of hope in darkness, is particularly striking for many in the wake of the US election:

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.

In dark times, poetry and music often become more important to us, providing the kind of transcendence we need to interpret painful events in a wider context. And Cohen wrote “Anthem,” one of his most beautiful and hopeful songs, in a tumultuous global period.

I hope we are strong enough as a nation to find our way out of, and survive our time within this darkness.

So today, with bells ringing all around me, I choose Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” as my, let the light in, remember there is light, and with lightness you can rise above the mire beneath you, song for a, twist like an acrobat through the snares around you, lift your eyes to the goal in front of you not the lack of net below you, remember that you are the product of every part of your story - the good and the bad - honor all of it and be the best version of you that there is.

In all honesty, I love Leonard as a writer and performer, but I think Rufus does an incredible job telling the story and evoking the emotion of this song, so that’s the version I chose.