leonardcohenforum.com

Friday evening
I am at my desk
I glance up
There is a picture of Leonard
About 10cm by 7cm
Celebrating Shabbat
Red wine, two candles
His grey cap
And up a little higher
A small Menorah
And books behind
'The Origin of Species'
Gandhi's autobiography
And the 'Dictionary of World Biography'
By Barry Jones

Comprised in it
Are so many souls
From Billie Holiday
To Petronius
And I read up on Ishmael
And wonder if he played
War games with his brother Isaac
If he enjoyed being a Hebrew outcast
Along with his mother Hagar
Sent into the desert

I decide not to light candles tonight
And reserve my prayer

Hi Boss,

It's a disconcerting biblical account. It's unclear, though, just why
the reservation of prayer. Not that it should be poetically clear.
It would be understandable for people to have reservations with
the devine for whatever providential role it may have played,
originally, and for making the conflict intergenerational. Of course,
it is also difficult to pray for those that read, teach and practice the
homicidal ways of Hitler, now undertaken by a not insignificant
portion of Ishmael's progeny. I know of a retired Baptist minister
that is about to turn 100 years old. He has been able to pray for all people, for
more decades than almost anyone alive, except, he tells me,
for this portion. He is kind, well meaning, honest and human.
(He says that he is not capable of forgiving these people.) I understand his reservation.

A child of ten can pray for the world; your baptist minister nearly one hundred is no greater. Ishmael's progeny are also Abraham's. Many are poor, many G-d fearing. There is no difference what religion one belongs to! We belong to the religion of Life; all of us. We sing the same song, climb the same tree, need the same nourishment. Evil is spread out upon the earth as is Love. It will always be thus. To 'bend' closer to Love by lighting a few candles and saying a prayer is one way. By neglecting this, in favour of a man treated horribly, is another. Traces of evil live in every one of us. So do traces of Love. We have many stories, many road maps. Now we need to drive carefully; to use our conscience.

Boss

Hi Boss,

Nice reply. The minister, is a grandfather of a longtime friend of mine,
and hasn't been a minister to me, b.t.w.