There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in

In his song, Anthem, Leonard Cohen uses the refrain, “There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” Whatever else Leonard Cohen had in mind when he coined that phrase, it says something about how wisdom, compassion, and morality seep into our lives.

A recent trip to visit my parents on Nantucket Island, MA, caused me to reflect on Cohen’s words. The morning after my arrival, I met a man in town that stood out. He stood out not because he donned the latest Vineyard Vine fashions, nor had a beautiful wife, nor beautiful kids, nor a golden retriever, nor a nice Land Rover. No, he stood out because he had none of these. He stood out because it was apparent that he had somehow fallen through the cracks. He was homeless and very much looked the part. In fact, perhaps he was the crack. The crack in the otherwise perfect world of Nantucket. His name is Bobby.

Suddenly Cohen’s words rang true. There is a crack in everything. Our culture, and Nantucket of course, is no exception. Despite great technological progress and even some genuine moral achievement, all is far from well with the world. People are falling through its cracks and it is these persons – the homeless, the sick, the unattractive, the broken, the handicapped, the untalented, those with Alzheimer’s disease, the unborn, and the poor in general – who are the crack where the light is entering. They give soul to our world. And for about two weeks Bobby gave soul to Nantucket. What do I mean by this?

As Rene Girard puts it: What is anthropologically marginal is spiritually central. This is an academic expression for what scripture means when it says that the stone rejected by the builders is the cornerstone for the building. In simple terms, this tells us that those whom the culture marginalizes and sees as unimportant, those whom it deems disposable – the sick, the aged, the severely handicapped, the dying, the homeless, and the unborn – are in fact, spiritually, the most important people in the world. They are where the light gets in. In other words, it was where Love gets in. How we value them is the true measure of our wisdom, compassion, and morality.

In Bobby’s case I saw love flourish. Beginning with his big broken tooth smile and heart-felt “good morning,” the day I met him until the day someone paid for his ferry, bus and plane tickets back to his birth-place of Puerto-Rico, Bobby’s two week Nantucket stay was an outpouring of love. In those two weeks, Bobby caused people to look outside themselves, outside their vacations and beyond their perfect paradise of Nantucket. Good-hearted people provided Bobby with food, water, shelter, a shower, a shave, a suitcase and even coffee from the Hub (a local newsstand).

As Bobby told me, he came to Nantucket as a place of refuge, a place that was safe and peaceful. Not much different than the reasons I, and I am sure many others, come to Nantucket. The difference is Bobby brought with him a gift. Those who fall through the cracks of the culture are indeed the crack where the light gets in. If our world has any real soul left, if indeed we still even understand the words wisdom, compassion, and morality, then it is because someone who has no power in the culture, someone who has been marginalized and rejected, has shared a gift with us.