I woke up at 4:00 for an early flight today. I’m not a “spring out of bed” kind of girl, so I checked out my Facebook feed while I tried to shake my groggy head awake. What I found was video of Kate McKinnon on SNL, playing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” impersonating Hillary Clinton.
I burst into tears.
The loss was so profound, so new again, so intolerable. The election, of course, but the loss of a master with words, another intellect lost. It was an unnamable death knell of intellectualism and fighting against what is wrong.
Look, I don’t do well with sleep deprivation. Tomorrow (or later, after a nap, I’m sure I’ll be back to my fire-spitting self).
I want to celebrate Cohen, but this week I’m not sure “Hallelujah,” quite covers it. Instead I offer to you one of the most lyrical, beautiful and disturbing songs from one of our great, gone masters. I have it on my phone. I play it when I want to write a villain. It’s a rage-filled, acid commentary on everything that’s wrong with society.
You’ll see Kate McKinnon’s rendition of Hallelujah everywhere today (and you should watch it. It’s beautiful). But you should also listen to Cohen’s darker warning. Also, his voice is a gravelly lament.
“The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it’s overturned the order of the soul.”
