"There For You"

Leonard Cohen's recent albums - share your views with others!
imaginary friend
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:09 am
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Re: "There For You"

Post by imaginary friend »

“I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.” — Julian Barnes
Kinbote8
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Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:36 pm

Re: "There For You"

Post by Kinbote8 »

What do you mean you can't bear to read some of the posts on here? I took that to mean mine.
imaginary friend
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:09 am
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Re: "There For You"

Post by imaginary friend »

Kinbote8

Don't take it personally.

I would bet mah bottom dollah that pbshell67 is just talking to himself again. I think he's referring to his own posts. ;-)
Kinbote8
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:36 pm

Re: "There For You"

Post by Kinbote8 »

I must have forgotten to take my rampant paranoia pills that day. That smile looks like it could use a face job. Did you get a chance to see any of Cohen's concerts over the summer? I've read some good reviews of them on here. It's pretty amazing that he can still do it at 73. I didn't make any of them myself. Have you heard anything about his forthcoming album? It was supposedly due to come out this past spring. I guess his tour held that up. I don't have any analysis to offer today, or ANALysis, as I prefer to pronounce it. Did you ever notice that the word scatology is ensconced in the word eschatology? Adios.
imaginary friend
Posts: 1371
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:09 am
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Re: "There For You"

Post by imaginary friend »

Hey pbshel67

Nice to see you hanging out here again. I always appreciated your-off-the-wall posts; veering around subject to subject, public to private, on the same thread. I like that you are your own person. Would like to run into your Mom someday too. I am certain I'd know her from your descriptions.

Hope you were able to catch a life-affirming LC concert on the tour...

XO
SWITZ
Posts: 165
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:36 am
Location: SEATTLE, WA

Re: "There For You"

Post by SWITZ »

FX: sound of two empty bottles of cheap white wine rolling into one another.........
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mat james
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Joined: Sat May 27, 2006 8:06 am
Location: Australia

Re: "There For You"

Post by mat james »

I was reading Violet on the thread "Daddy's Little Princess" (Poetry by forum members) and I ended up here as this thread discusses the song which Violet referenced.

Steven wrote, (above)

“Pbshel67,

I haven't looked at the lyrics recently nor played the song in awhile, but my take on
the walking the streets lines were of an introspective, self-absorbed walking,
the kind that a pensive loner might do.”

Imaginary friend says, above,

“This is what it says to me:
Whether in war, or martyrdom or for a cause, individuals have faced death from the beginning of civilization, death is 'old'; but each time it's a new (and frightening) experience to the person who's facing it ("I freeze with fear...")
I think 'There for You' speaks about devotion – to a person, or a cause, or a God, that is powerful enough to direct and dictate our actions, even when we are not conscious of being directed."

Eckard Tolle in his book “The power of now” states that there is someone behind the individuals chattering mind; someone deeper, universal, but still you, the real you. There is nothing new in this idea of someone else residing alongside/within each of us, but Tolle says it fresh; and well.
And the Hindus talked for aeons about the “Dweller” existing at a distance behind incessant thought, inside each human being waiting to be discovered by each searching individual.
Perhaps Leonard discovered this ‘dweller’ and realized their mutually beneficial, symbiotic “there for you” matrix-existence.
I like to view the song “There for you” as all of the above; plus: In a similar vein to my “Master Song” “a song about Trinity (L. Cohen)
comments, (viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23694)
It could be interpreted as Leonard making an observation that his life has meaning in that he is experiencing it “for God”. Jung argues in “Answer to Job” that god needs us so that he can experience spacial / time existence.
And, of course the flip side is that God is “there” for us. The “dweller” (soul?) in each of us, is in a position to be “lover” of both God and individual/Leonard/you/me.

So I feel that the song is coming from this “Trinity” perspective again; as, in my opinion, does much of his writing, like the Master Song.

My thanks to Violet for taking me down these thought alleys.

Mat.
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.
SWITZ
Posts: 165
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:36 am
Location: SEATTLE, WA

Re: "There For You"

Post by SWITZ »

Oh man what a hangover...........did I miss anything ?
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