Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.
Interpretation
Scars represent both the pain we've endured and the strength we've gained, serving as a testament to our experiences.
In this quote, Leonard Cohen reflects on the significance of scars in human relationships, suggesting that scars symbolize both vulnerability and resilience. Children display their scars proudly, indicating a certain innocence and acceptance of their past pains, while lovers may hide their scars as secrets, suggesting a more complex interplay of intimacy and vulnerability. Ultimately, Cohen suggests that scars are indicators of the experiences that shape us, transforming pain into something tangible and profound.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, one might quote this to highlight how experiences shape our character.
What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.
I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.
Be With Me In The Phases Of My Work Because My Brain Feels Like It Has Been Whipped And I Yearn To Make A Small Perfect Thing Which Will Live In Your Morning Like Curious Static Through A President's Elegy Or A Nude Hunchback Acquiring A Tan On The Crowded Oily Beach.
I heard of a man who says words so beautifully that if he only speaks their name women give themselves to him. If I am dumb beside your body while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips it is because I hear a man climb stairs and clear his throat outside our door.
I think what we like about music - and what we like about art in general....is that enterprise that stops our minds from spinning. Because we're always all over the place. A good song, a good lyric is a movie: it will just focus and calm and confer significance on this completely bewildering reality that all of us live in.
Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.
He shook my hand and said goodbye with a sentence that might have been either good advice or a threat: "Take good care of yourself.
There is much coldness among men because we do not dare to be as cordial as we really are.
If you've ever been homesick, or felt exiled from all the things and people that once defined you, you'll know how important welcoming words and friendly smiles can be.
Because growing up as an Asian-American and growing up as someone who is not white, oftentimes in this country you can feel as though you're a foreigner, or you're reminded of being a foreigner, even though you're not. Even though inside, internally, you feel completely American.
My relationship with cats has saved me from a deadly and pervasive ignorance.
I've always loved independent women, outspoken women, eccentric women, funny women, flawed women. When someone says about a woman, 'I'm sorry, that's just wrong,' I tend to think she must be doing something right.
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