I still remember the Meeting when Linda spoke about Leonard Cohen's song "Anthem". She talked about these lines of his:
Ring the bell that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light get in.
As always, she spoke beautifully, and it still comes back to me every once in awhile.
A couple days ago, I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts and a band did a beautiful cover of it (Canada's "The Once"). If you like folk music, you can listen to their cover of "Coming Back to You" here: http://www.theonce.ca/music.htm.
I like this particular podcast (essentially a radio show that you can listen to again online) because in many ways it is about happiness and home and what makes life good. It makes me smile and laugh and trust that light does "get in". It is broadcast from the Canadian version of the BBC (CBC) and is called "The Vinyl Cafe". They travel across Canada and stop/play in towns all across the country telling stories and having local bands play. Then they pass around a bucket to collect money for a special project they choose each year.
They start off each show by telling people in the audience (it is recorded live) what is good about their community. Then people play music. Then stories are told. Stories where things don't always go so well, and people are people, but things turn out okay in the end. I think sometimes we need this. At least, I need this. Stuart McLean is author/storyteller, very much in the tradition of Garrison Keillor I think.
Anyway, thought I'd recommend this particular episode because not only is Cohen's "Anthem" included, but a short story (McLean tells a series of stories about a small community) about cycling and giving testimony: issues many Quakers may be interested in and willing to laugh about.
You can download an MP3 file and listen to the radio show here:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting//pastpodcasts.html?44#ref44
You are looking for the: VC: March 27th, 2010 "Dave and the Bike" episode. Or, alternatively, it is on iTunes (search for "Vinyl Cafe").
On Quaker Renewal
21 hours ago
2 comments:
Nice, Nadine. Linda's ministry is usually very memorable. Were you there for the ministry about the dead goldfish (in a TV set converted to a fish tank, i think....!) that wasnt dead after all? It was amazing. And Leonard Cohen's songs/music/poetry is very beautiful. We spoke of it this evening at the Q meeting house, having happened upon your blog because we were doing a bit of work on our Q website.
Yes, I remember the goldfish (RIP).
And one about her garden pond. Was that different or the same one? Whatever, sometimes I don't always remember the words, just the feeling I have when people (in this case she) was talking and her standing in her usual place with sun streaming through her hair even though it was winter I think. Was in my first year here. That's what I liked about Roger's poem as well, called back to mind certain Ministry but also a great series of Meeting for Reflection discussions we had.
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