You Can Find Your Love. . .

[remote1]

You're welcome GinaDCG! I am trying very hard to forget that I am organising a birthday party involving ten ten-year-old boys this afternoon, an eight-year-old and a five-year-old, while my husband is sick in bed, by looking for Rosicrucian coupons on the internet! Does that sound like denial?

[GinaDCG]

Oh my. My thoughts will be with you. I had 2 girls myself, so birthday parties were never THAT intense. Though there was the backyard party for my 4 year old involving the boy from the extremely troubled home (his father had died in a car crash the preceding month) who decided to demolish the tent I had set up for play and then throw rocks at the other kids and put worms in the punch. And, since his father had just died . . . what were the words to use, what was appropriate discipline??

I ended up calling down my older daughter (all of 6) and a couple of her friends and tasked them (and payed them) to basically keep the kid all but locked up. I could have, but chose not, called the Mom involved, but she had told me all week how much she was looking forward to having the afternoon to herself.

(The party went OK after that but within a few months time the kid (and his siblings) were in foster homes, the mom was in a mental ward and the house was reposesed. Eventually, the mom remarried and moved out of state. I have no idea how the stories played out after that.)

Hows this for cheery pre- (or post by the time you read this) parental support? Count on me for the same anytime. Anytime.

Hey, who said Cohen was for gloomy pessimists? Not me.

[remote1]

That sounds like a pretty awful experience Gina!

All went well; I've got a very happy ten-year-old lad sleeping soundly upstairs right now. One thing that is hard to imagine is the noise levels that these young boys generate! I have absolutely no idea how school teachers cope with their jobs...

Perhaps I should try and join the Rosicrucians; they are bound to have the ANSWER in diagrams (perhaps they can send it to me in a plain brown envelope)! And I've got lots of coupons now!

[hydriot]

I must have been reading the wrong magazines as a child. Yes, on the back was always a coupon you could send, but it was invariably to Charles Atlas who would teach you how to build up your body so that bullies on the beach would no longer kick sand in your face.

[GinaDCG]

Yes, I recall the Charles Atlas ads too. There was a very indulgent shop manager in my home town -- village actually. He never married, lived at home -- he was @ 60 -- with his 90-something mother, and offered many of us free bubble gum and candy. And he said nothing if one was to plop down in front of the magazine and comic book counter and read all day on his black and red tile floor. Rosicrucians, Charles Atlas, and the "take this drawing test to see if you have talent to enroll in our art school" coupons (the drawing test was always reproducing the head of a dog.)

Ahh, thanks for the stroll down memory lane.

[holydove]

Remote1, funny you should ask such a question (about schoolteachers coping. . .); until about six months ago, I was not only a schoolteacher, but I was a Special Education teacher, and, throughout my 25 years of teaching, I taught all ages between 3 - 12 years old.

How did I cope? I really have no idea how I managed to get through. However, if I had to guess, I'd say that although I meditated, did yoga, studied Tibetan Buddhism & other spiritual & philosophical teachings, honestly, I think it was the chocolate, cigarettes, sex, alcohol & other unmentionable substances & acitivities, that got me through! But maybe I'm wrong, or maybe it was both the "holy" and "profane", working together, that got me through.

After all, hasn't Leonard taught us, among other things, that the two are not exactly as separate as they seem to be? It rings true for me. . .

So, remote1, given my degenerate outlook, I may not be the one from whom you would want to take any advice. . .

[remote1]

Aha! So that's what teachers are up to when we're not looking!
I will never look at my kids' teachers in quite the same way now Holydove!

[holydove]

Aha! So that's what teachers are up to when we're not looking!
I will never look at my kids' teachers in quite the same way now Holydove!

Maybe now you have a new kind of "respect" for them???

The world would probably be surprised at how many teachers lead "double lives". Now I've blown their covers. Well, it's a hard truth to handle, but someone had to say it. . . And to Forum members everywhere, I thank you in advance for keeping the secret safe within the "Forum Family". . .

And remember to be gentle with your children's teachers - they are already, perpetually, teetering on the edge. . .

[hydriot]

Returning to the topic of this thread...

I now have definitive proof that 'on' was a mistake. I have a CD re-issue of Songs of Love and Hate that includes at the end a bonus track, an early version of Dress Rehearsal Rag. It is certainly a strange version, with syncopation and a very heavy bass line during part of each verse. At first I didn't like it, but it grows on you.

Anyway, in this early version of Dress Rehearsal Rag, Leonard sings "in a plain brown envelope", so clearly that was always his intention.

[LisaLCFan]

Although I have nothing to contribute to the discussion about "on" versus "in," I was one of those people who actually sent in a Rosicrucian coupon that I found in a magazine (possibly Omni magazine, which is the only one I remember reading regularly. I don't know if it still exists, but I remember that it had very cool sci-fi articles and pictures)! At that point in time (this would have been in the early 1980s), I had never heard Dress Rehearsal Rag, to my knowledge (I was just a few years away from discovering the wonderful world of Leonard Cohen). I don't recall what sort of envelope they came in, but I vaguely remember receiving some little booklets telling me all about Rosicrucianism, and it seemed a little cultish to my teen-aged mind, so I did not pursue it further. I never thought of it again until I heard Dress Rehearsal Rag some years later, and now the reference to those coupons always brings a smile to my face as I remember my awkward youth and my brief belief that sending in that coupon would provide me with some much sought-after answers to some of the mysteries of life!

[holydove]

Hydriot - thank you very much for that info. Interesting, also, because I have the CD with that bonus version of Dress Rehearsal Rag, but I haven't listened listen to that bonus version in a very long time, because when I did listen to it (once or twice), I didn't like it very much either; so i didn't listen to it repeatedly and, obviously, not very closely, because I didn't notice the "in" instead of "on".

I will certainly listen to it again now - and I look forward to hearing that "IN"! It will confirm the solution you have offered, to this puzzle of a thousand years!! Thank you again, I appreciate it . . .

[LisaLCFan]

And, there is a live version of this song in which Leonard sings "IN" (not on), found on the BBC concert recording from 1968 (great concert, available online in MP3, if you don't have it. I can dig up the link if you're interested).

Cheers,
Lisa

[holydove]

Hi Lisa - yes, I am certainly interested, especially since Leonard has only done that song live a couple of times, at the most. I read a quote where he said he doesn't do that song live because he feels it belongs in its own "private area"; and that he's only played it a couple of times, even by himself; and that he was shocked that he wrote that song! Then there is another quote, where he says he has only played it live when he felt that the atmosphere was able to support such a traumatic song (not verbatim, but those were the basic messages).

Anyway, I would love to hear the version you mentioned - I don't think I've ever heard a live version (or maybe once on youtube, a long time ago) - so if you could find it, that would be great - thank you!

[remote1]

Well, there's always the one I posted here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20740#p213845
But maybe it's a different one you're thinking of LisaLCFan?

[holydove]

Remote1, thank you - I like that version - I haven't listened again yet to the bonus on the CD, but I remember that one thing I preferred less about the cd bonus version was that it's not as harsh as the original cd version, and I liked the harshness of the original because I think it really suits, and emphasizes, the theme of the song. But this time, I was able to appreciate the more mellow/sad tone of this version, almost as much as the angry/bitter tone of the original (although I think I still like the (bitter) tone of the original even more.

But that was very interesting to listen to - and he does say "IN" instead of "ON"

I also re-read the message you posted about the Rosicrucian info being mailed in a plain brown envelope - also very interesting - so perhaps LC is not referring to porn, or tantric sex, or any other sexual material, but to something in the Rosicrucian texts that might help him locate the love in his heart (or elsewhere) - or maybe he is suggesting both possibilities - another example of his inimitable talent for multiple layers of meaning!

All very interesting - thank you!