"There is a crack in everything ...."

I'm a big fan of the late Leonard Cohen --- and a favorite line of his has been running through my head this week whilst watching the absurdities of the current regime play out in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere: "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

It's taken from Cohen's "Anthem," performed here in a production staged at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. (left), on Jan. 21, 2017, after the Women's March.

The words are a little difficult to understand, obscured by staging, but here they are for all of us resisters out here:

The birds they sing, at the break of day

Start again, I heard them say.

Don’t dwell on what has passed away

Or what is yet to be.

Yes, the wars, they will be fought again

The holy dove she will be caught again

Bought, and sold, and bought again

The dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

We asked for signs. The signs were sent

The birth betrayed. The marriage spent

Yeah, the widowhood of every government

Signs for all to see.

I can’t run no more, with that lawless crowd

While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud

But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud

They’re going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

You can add up the parts; you won’t have the sum

You can strike up the march, there is no drum

Every heart, every heart to love will come

But like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.