Almost a year ago, on a flight back from South Africa, I was thinking of my colleague Birgitta who had just prematurely passed away. Birgitta and I talked much about Leonard Cohen. I had only recently lent her the book ‘So Long Marianne’.

I am a latecomer to Leonard Cohen, but after being conscripted about three years ago to go to one of his return concerts in Manchester, I came to appreciate not just his dark soul and powerful poetry but also the musicality of his songs.

It is therefore with ‘If It Be Your Will’ I remember Birgitta.

So today was like a reprise. How then could it be that  on my flight home from working in New York, I look at the news flashes and see that Leonard has just died at 82 . If Dylan deserves the Nobel prize for literature, then I’m sure he would have willingly shared it.

I had just downloaded,d his recently released ‘You want it darker’ It sounds like he was preparing for his death.

I post it for you in his memory. It seems very fitting and prophetic epitaph

 It’s been a depressing week. I cannot tell you how profound the week in New York has been. We had children in the school crying and in despair. We had at least two of the teachers deeply worried if Trump’s repeal of amnesty and work permits means they have to leave. At least three others asked me how easy it would be to move and work to the UK. So from the microcosm of just one small school, how can a demagogue be allowed to destroy the life chances of just this one small school serving resolutely some of the most needy young people of New York.

So Leonard what words do you leave us with?

I won’t be the only one to think of the poem by Paster Niemoller from his Nazi prison….

 

You have to believe it is the initial dismay that has whipped up the sense of panic. But on the other hand this is no time for complacency. In many places around the world the ethics of tolerance and compassion that has built our societies are at risk.

 So if it be the will of the majority that we go this way, then it is for all of us to temper and challenge every individual action that fails to live up to higher sets of values. People like Trump and votes like BREXIT were not given a universal mandate; everyone who voted did not  agree to every last bit of policy. So by challenging robustly every concerning  action  gives a chance for us all to debate and talk through the rationale. Don’t attack the man or the party- that just plays into their hands and own strategies. Challenge each inappropriate action.

 It’s so easy to write all this philosophical stuff on a flight away from the action. But I have to ask what action will I take. How will I stand up and be counted for what most of us know to be right. Let me know how? I have to get out of my intellectual and middle class bubble where I think talking and tweeting and sharing views amongst people who think like me makes any sort of difference. It’ does not.

 So Leonard, rest in peace. Yours has been the saddest end to a very sad week.