Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. — Leonard Cohen, Anthem
I am a son of an engineer, and educated as one too, but it doesn’t take an engineer to know that when one finds a crack in a wall, the floor, or the ceiling it means something has changed and more than likely something went wrong. It’s a red flag, worthy of further inquiry. But in Leonard Cohen’s classic, Anthem, he suggest we look at cracks in a different light. (Bad pun.)
Ralph Waldo Emerson says it differently. He said, “There is a crack in everything that God has made.”
I have learned over the years to look for cracks in the facades of people especially politicians. It in the cracks where we gain insight into the true nature of another person. I have also learned that the light travels both ways. Yes, the crack allows illumination into the true nature of a person, but it also allows that true nature to illuminate the outside as well. When allowed to escape through the cracks, that light that can illuminate the world.
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