“Success is survival.”

Cohen's attitudes towards success create a beautiful circle and then the circle shatters into many dissolving butterflies.

I’ll admit it, I’m not a Swiftie. I feel funny even using that word. But that’s probably because I’m a shy person. Or maybe I hide behind that persona. Cohen, unlike me, never hid. He wore who he was on his palms and offered the world music that for many became mercy and miracle.

The above photograph is from a 2010 ceremony at the Songwriters Hall of Fame. It’s wild to me that both of them were inducted in there at the same time!

Here’s a link to the video. Cohen enters at the 2:02 minute mark and begins to speak shortly thereafter. He says:

Thank you so much, friends. I’m overwhelmed to hear Judy Collins and K.D. Lang sing those songs and bring them to a life that I never could. It is a sublime experience for me. I am so happy I could share it with all of you because I think something extraordinary happened just now.

Unfortunately, it then cuts off.

Yet even in these brief lines, Cohen’s humility and power shines through.

May we all succeed, may we all survive.

Yours,

Karan