That's how the light gets in...

A good friend came to visit a couple of months ago, and we did a tour of my farm, largely for photographic purposes. At the last minute I realized my memory card was full, so I just enjoyed the walk, vowing to retrace our footsteps at a later date. A cruel stretch of Alberta winter then set it, delaying such adventures for a time. Finally last week I was able to catch up, and capture some impressive snow melt. However, one of the images that most caught my eye was this one, obviously inspired by Leonard Cohen... "There is a crack in everything... that's how the light gets in..." I was delighted to see that I had captured the light... and then I noticed something else. What was an image of Pegasus doing inside an old grain shed?

Well, I investigated with the enthusiasm of someone who had discovered ancient cave hieroglyphics, obviously! It was a couple of days before I made my way back to the shed, so in the meantime (during a night of strange dreams) I began the symbolic investigation. Pegasus, obviously, is the mythical winged horse. My searched revealed one of my favourite sites on symbolism, What's Your Sign? (a winged horse representing power and mobility) as well as being the name of a Turkish airline; I then wanted to know if Leonard Cohen had any connection to the mythical beast, and found that of course there were some, though rather obscure (a member of a poetry group dedicated to Cohen had written a cool poem on the subject; and, a biographer of Cohen had given a reading at a bookstore called Pegasus...) When I returned to look at the image I had unknowingly caught, I discovered that this particular winged horse belonged to Mobil Oil (before they merged with Exxon). I'm still not sure why it is there; from the outside it serves no obvious purpose. I suspect that my father or uncle placed it there sometime after my grandparents bought the farm in 1950?
As any of you who are familiar with the symbolic world view must know, it is sometimes hard to know where to draw the line as an existential detective. I observed my photograph again, and realized that when I had replaced my camera batteries my time had been reset so that the date on this photo was 06/06/06; and the size of the image was 777 KB. 666 and 777???!!!

How could I even make something like this up? Obviously, this leads to further research on how these numbers essentially represent good and evil (light and dark)??? Google it if you're not sure! Well my friends, it seems to be another case where there is a ton of meaning, but who knows what to make of it.
And so I leave you with this:

"Anthem"

The birds they sang
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.
Ah 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 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
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but 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.

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.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

- Leonard Cohen