What are your reasons for loving/respecting Leonard?

[Cheshire gal]

Mine are:- Although being a complex man, he prefers a simple lifestyle.
He avoided the 'star persona' and so we do not have to read about him in the 'tabloids'.
He is leaving a great legacy for his children and grandchildren (for us also) which will live forever.
I could continue for quite a while

Cheshire gal.

[mnkyface]

Everything you said, Cheshire.

Also:
His insight, his humor, and his devotion to his work. Above all, his resilience. The heroic (yes, I use that word) way he dealt with a bad set of circumstances (Kelly Lynch theft) by just brushing himself off and getting back to work. I try to face challenges in a Cohen-esque manner...don't always succeed at it however.

Oh- I also like the hat.

[Geoffrey]

'Cheshire gal' wrote that Leonard Cohen is "a complex man", to which 'mnkyface' readily agreed.

Why or how is he complex? To say that a man has that kind of personality is a derogatory observation, a negative statement implying that he is too complicated to know. It's what a wife says about her husband in a divorce court: "I never understood him, he was like a stranger at times - could never fathom him out."

For 'complex' the ordinary dictionary gives this definition: "So complicated or intricate as to be hard to understand or deal with." Whereas in psychological terms (saying that a person has a complex) the word is defined as: "A system of interrelated, emotion-charged ideas, feelings, memories, and impulses that is usually repressed and that gives rise to abnormal or pathological behaviour."

[John Etherington]

Cheshire gal and mnkyface list many of Leonard's best qualities. I respect the way that Leonard has never compromised his art. He didn't bow to commercial pressures; often taking five or six years to live fully between albums. Hence the quality of his work. I respect the Virgoan qualities of meticulousness, perfectionism and discipline that are evident in Leonard. I particularly respect the way he spent six years in the monastery, at that stage in his life. Clearly his comeback is a phenomenal achievement. Yet he is still warm and kindly to those who love and respect him - treating people as individuals and not just fans.

Geoffrey - of course Leonard is complex...You only have to consider some of the topics that have been discussed, here - The Influence of Buddhism in his songs; the use of Christian symbolism, the references to BDSM, his political views, the occult background of his work and his use of kabbalistic imagery. Try fully comprehending books such as "Parasites of Heaven", "Flowers For Hitler" & "Death of a Lady's Man".

[lightasabreeze]

In simple terms, he appears to be a very caring person, he still wants things to be 'just right', not cutting corners. He knows what we want and he delivers.
We know, or think we do, that Leonard has 'known' many women in his busy life -lucky them -, yet none of them have written their stories of being badly treated by him.
Unless I missed it, they all seem so glad to have known him.
Doesn't that say something?

[Geoffrey]

lightasabreeze wrote:
>he still wants things to be 'just right', not cutting corners.

This reminds me of a film I once saw with Julie Roberts; 'Sleeping with the enemy'? Her husband was the same, everything had to be just right. The tins of food in the cupboard had to be lined up in neat rows with the labels pointing frontwards, the 'his' and 'hers' bath-towels had to be exactly the same length when they hung over the towel-rail, etc. If you mean that Leonard has this same pathological trait then that could explain why nobody married him. It is a heavy affliction with which to be burdoned, and of course living with such a perfection-demanding spouse would be pure terror. I wonder what made Leonard like that? Any ideas?

[sturgess66]

I wonder what made Leonard like that? Any ideas?

It was the hat, afterall?

[Cheshire gal]

Geoffrey that is quite a stretch to equate 'lightasabreez's' comments about Leonard's wish to have his work 'just right' and not 'cut corners' with the movie 'Sleeping with the enemy'. That person was a sadist. Hardly Leonard who, although never married, had long term relationships with women. I would just bet all of them would have married him in an instant.
He is a man you just cannot tie down. Unconvential certainly but that is his wish.


Cheshire gal

[Geoffrey]

Cheshire gal wrote:
>Leonard who, although never married, had long term relationships with women. I would just bet all of them would have married him in an instant. He is a man you just cannot tie down. Unconventional certainly, but that is his wish.

You think so? You mean he had long relationships with various women but always refused to marry them - because that was his wish? Did their wishes never count? I had no idea his fans saw him as such an egocentric person. I am quite horrified. You are saying the wishes of all the women that were good enough to sleep with, though not wed, were ignored by him, that he was concerned only with his freedom, that he shyed away (for whatever reason) from the commitment and responsibility of matrimony, that we are dealing here with a selfish cad incapable of forming a permanent relationship. What happened to him when he was little, do you think? What on earth makes one adult so scared of being tied to another that throught their life they become known as somebody "you just cannot tie down"?

[lightasabreeze]

Gosh, after reading all those comments I am now beginning to wonder about him. Oh Dear..

Even so, we still have not heard any bitter stories from his 'women'

[Geoffrey]

John Etherington wrote:
>Geoffrey - of course Leonard is complex.

hello john.
yes, maybe - but i never saw him like that. call me naive, but i just saw him simply as a very nice elderly gentleman who had gone through life being good and kind. not this complicated character you all see, a person to which effort must be applied should one wish to understand him. the psychologist in me reads what you all write here in this column, the sub-conscious negativity bubbling beneath a rhetoric struggling to camouflage inner thoughts, the ambiguous language people in denial use to justify misjudgement, and i am mildly shocked - to say the least. but let us investigate the source of this 'complexity' - as you call it. from where does it stem? environment or genetical? ignored as a child, dominant mother - or what? you are giving an assessment of his character, but offer no reasons why he is like he is.

[John Etherington]

Geoffrey - I can never determine whether you are naive or bluffing, but since you've asked the question I will give you the answer. And the answer is "Puer Aeternus" (eternal youth) - you can look up this term in Google. This archetype is predominant in musicians and also those who are drawn to esotericism. Leonard is not exempted, and neither am I, as I totally identify with this archetype. The polar opposite to this is the senex (or wise old man), and Leonard is much closer to embracing this than I am - he has fathered children, and done what is necessary to earn money and provide for himself, his family, and those who he cares for. Furthermore, he has dared to confront his pain, and the ageing process.

[Andrew McGeever]

My own reasons for "loving/ respecting Leonard" are probably best summed up in the piece I had published in the Files some years ago.
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/hydraC2F.html
Andrew.

[TipperaryAnn]

His honesty; he has always been brutally honest about himself and his relationships. Even as early as "Bird on the Wire" he could write: "I have torn everyone who reached out for me ". That surely strikes a chord with most of us, but could we acknowledge it in public as he has done ? He has confronted his own weaknesses to the point of self-loathing; the downside of such honesty is that the "significant other" in his relationships appears too, warts and all, in his songs ! And yet, as others have pointed out here, most of the women he has known and loved are not bitter or hostile towards him. I would not DARE to be judgemental about anyone's success or otherwise in relationships; as in most aspects of life there is an element of luck involved in finding someone compatible, and skills learned from parents in sustaining a relationship. (or NOT learned ; as Philip Larkin has memorably written, "They fuck you up, your parents do "...) But to acknowledge how cruelly difficult all relationships can be, as Leonard has done, is a rare form of honesty.

[MaryB]

His sense of humor that keeps breaking through despite so many misconceptions of him being the 'minister of doom and gloom'.