Leonard Cohen and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

You either "get" Leonard Cohen or you don't. There's really no middle ground, at least not in my experience. His voice isn't classically beautiful to listen to. It is throaty and monotone at times, and for many people, evokes emotions that are more comfortable when left unexamined. I have heard him compared to Tom Waits, sometimes favorably, and sometimes not. For me, Cohen is and always will be in a class by himself. They don't call him the "Prophet of Misery" for nothing.

As I type this, I am listening to 'Suzanne'. Cohen's guitar virtuosity amazes me as much today as it did when I was 19. His voice in this song is one of mourning and hope all at once and never fails to make me feel SOMETHING. It is easy to dismiss this music as depressing, but that really misses the point. There is pain in Cohen's voice, yes, but there is also a measure of celebration of hard-won life lessons, of taking the path your soul leads you on and looking back only to gain every ounce of joy and experience possible from the places you have been. I can get on board with that.

No matter where I go or how I feel, I keep Leonard Cohen with me. Some songs, some artists have the power to magnify our joy as well as our sorrow, and that is what he has always done for me. Real, raw emotion is all but missing from main-stream music and culture these days. When you find it, cherish it.

"If your life is a leaf,

that the seasons tear off and condemn,

they will bind you with love

that is graceful and green as a stem..."