I dreamt that Leonard Cohen appeared by my bedside. He smiled and reassured me that things will be alright: “They will all have been beautiful in the end.” I wanted to ask him something, but wasn’t sure what. Then he was gone.
The radio (it was Radio Moskva, from back when I spent a fall in Kyïv in late Soviet days, with the radio wired directly into the communal apartments so that all you could do was turn it down or let it play) announced that the Catholic Church had recognized him as a saint, and I imagined him and Pope Francis talking in a bar together, or strolling across a golf course in heaven. Saint Leonard of Westmount, the headlines said.
They were building a temple for him outside Kyïv and pilgrims were starting to filter into the city. There was a rumor that Irving Layton was arriving by train. I tried to get to the station, but the (super-long) metro escalators were all tangled and people were reporting flooding on the tracks below. We all had to walk. The botanical gardens were in full bloom and I thought I heard the Vydubychi monastery bells ringing.
I realize now that the bells would have rang loudly a few days ago, on Easter Sunday.
Since it’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but I’m too busy (doing this and this) to post anything original for it, I’ll re-share my Earth Day posts from a year ago and 10 years ago. Here’s what the world looked like to me then…
- 2019: Earth Day thoughts for a mediascaped planet – On Ukrainian elections, social media, and the “oligarchization of democracy”
- 2010: Earth Day 40
Jon Awbrey
