Watched the Hope for Haiti Concert last night. It was, on the whole, a dignified restrained affair. I found that the songs most suited to the tragedy were the older ones - John Legend's rendition of the Gospel song Motherless Child and Mary J Blige's gospel version of the incredible Hard Times Come Again no More. Justin Timberlake sang a nice version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. These simple, sparse, songs spoke powerfully to the human condition when faced with difficulty. Let us hope that the Concert prompted people to give. While listening I was reminded of Cohen's other song Anthem which anticipates his period spent as a Buddhist monk, and which, he says, contains the fundamental belief behind a lot of his songs. I feel it expresses a fundamental truth about all our lives. It reminds us that when we should not wait till we think we are perfect before we start to give. Each one of us are broken in many ways, and make mistakes. We all search for the cure that will bring us wholeness. But this brokenness is what ultimately allows real compassion for others in their weakness and pain. The greatest gift we can offer another is an acceptance of their real selves, not some ideal version of them.
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
We are all substantially flawed, wounded, angry, hurt, here on Earth. But this human condition, so painful to us, and in some ways shameful- because we feel we are weak when the reality of ourselves is exposed - is made much more bearable when it is shared, face to face, in words that have expressive human eyes behind them.
Alice Walker, Letter to President Clinton
