Jesus Was a Sailor

The song Suzanne by Leonard Cohen starts off with a timeless moment between friends becoming sublime. The author creates an oddly romantic, penetrating setting of great personal importance.  Three verses and chorus is all the song needs to create profound mystery. This is a deeply spiritual song and by the end of the first verse the metaphors from a scene with a girl at a houseboat becomes quickly interchangeable with the divine.     

The first double entendre of meaning is the authors’ confession of having no love to give her…but finds out…they had always been lovers. This is biblical in that we have nothing to offer God, yet we find out God foreknew us from the beginning. From the chorus, the line travelling blind is about walking by faith not by sight. Our perfect body is obviously our spirit, being touched by another soul and by the perfect mind of God. By the second verse Jesus is walking thru time and space on earth; but only drowning men could see Him. Cohen’s poetic line is directly from the Olivet discourse (Sermon on the Mount) of Jesus who says-- Blessed are the poor in Spirit [Matt. 5:3]. And Mr. Cohen sings that we become free when we realize our brokenness. But the wisdom of God is missed by many, sinking also into the sea—heroes in the seaweed. But Jesus mission was a solitary one-- on a lonely wooden tower… Forsaken, almost human, He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone.

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

You can hear the boats go by

You can spend the night beside her

And you know that she's half crazy

But that's why you want to be there

And she feeds you tea and oranges

That comes all the way from China

And just when you mean to tell her

That you have no love to give her

Then she gets you on her wavelength

And she lets the river answer

That you've always been her lover

And you want to travel with her

And you want to travel blind

And you know that she will trust you

For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

And Jesus was a sailor

When he walked upon the water

And he spent a long time watching

From his lonely wooden tower

And when he knew for certain

Only drowning men could see him

He said "All men will be sailors then

Until the sea shall free them"

But he himself was broken

Long before the sky would open

Forsaken, almost human

He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

And you want to travel with him

And you want to travel blind

And you think maybe you'll trust him

For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand

And she leads you to the river

She is wearing rags and feathers

From Salvation Army counters

And the sun pours down like honey

On our lady of the harbor

And she shows you where to look

Among the garbage and the flowers

There are heroes in the seaweed

There are children in the morning

They are leaning out for love

And they will lean that way forever

While Suzanne holds the mirror

And you want to travel with her

And you want to travel blind

And you know that you can trust her

For she's touched your perfect body with her mind. 

                                                                                                           --- By Leonard Cohen

Visiting Peaches

I had not seen Peaches since her sister’s wedding in New York over ten years ago; which occurred just prior to the catastrophic event of 9/11-- an event so spiritually significant I dreamed about it while it was happening.


Cousin Peaches and I are close in age and spent our adolescence together. I recall a simple life growing up in the 70's and early 1980's; where we often went swimming and canoeing at a local lake. There was an island in the middle my uncle and I would swim  around, through the deep clean water. I also remember simply playing outdoors, oblivious to the dilapidated surroundings of our neighborhood, ignored by time and circumstance. 

Peaches and I were now in touch again after some long gaps, but with certain people you don't really notice the missing time. They are home for you no matter where or how long apart. It helps immensely that we are both Christians today. She has been important to me for emotional support, especially these last few years. I was nervous to meet her family. She had been married for 20 yrs with four boys as a result. Peaches has been blessed with a full life and has a great gift for encouraging and reaching out to people.  

I flew down to Arizona. After arriving at her house from the airport Peaches asked—with a wry smile—if I still felt nervous about being in her home with family I didn't know? “No not at all” I said, stating the obvious because I was completely at ease in the unfamiliar surroundings. I had never been this far South before and never to a real desert. I marveled at the houses painted in hues of clay red, sun burnt orange and pale yellow; all matching the natural landscape. The natural surroundings were simple and spacious; with cacti, palm trees and desert flower plants, staunchly sitting in beds of rock. The roofs of houses had to have real clay tile in order to withstand the heat of the desert valleys. Fences were mortared brick, lest the sun warp and destroy anything made of wood. 

One morning Peaches husband Roger and I jumped into his truck to follow their kids to school. A whole gang of neighborhood boys with oversize backpacks jumped on their motor-cross bikes. And the smaller the kid, the bigger the back-pack seemed to get! After seeing the kids safely to their school, we continued to the local coffee-shop where we met up with a friend from Rogers’s church. 

The next day, Essiah (her eldest son), Roger and I went to Sedona for some hiking. The area is stunning in its juxtaposition of green hills and red-rock spires. We walked upon the soft clay ground through groves of cypress trees, cacti and aloe plant, criss-crossing a stream upward. Amazingly on one side of us were snow-covered mountains, while the other featured red-rock mesa’s, with strata lines of ancient geological meandering. We climbed to almost 6,000 ft through the soft clay and snow, passing many waterfalls while following the stream. The sky was overcast, the temp in the mid-40’s, and these memories are indelible.


At times my life has been filled with turmoil. Even after my salvation I had doubts and used to wonder why God would continue to have anything to do with me, because I felt weak and inadequate. But I learned that when God begins a work in you, He does not forsake you because He is steadfast and true to His Word and to His covenant. So I realized after being filled of God's Holy-Spirit; we still have to 'work out' our salvation in this world. Though we are 'new creations'--"Behold, old things are passed away. All things are become new." --II Corinthians 5:17-- we still deal with sin of the heart and flesh. Sanctification is both a title and a process.


After my flight back from visiting with cousin Peaches and her family (I came back just before Christmas), the tree lights at home hover in the quiet evening, while I meditate on the peace, joy and wisdom of God, which surpasses all understanding. In solitude that personal relationship is made clear. And reflecting on the fellowship I experienced in Arizona, I am grateful. Peaches suggested I start a blog, and so this first entry is for her. 

Peaches has a nice small garden, shaded strategically between her lemon and orange trees. These trees are very fruitful, yielding more fruit than they know what to do with. Also in the back yard is a fire pit, where we gathered one cold December evening covering ourselves with blankets, hovering around the fire. The kids roasted marshmallows while I played on a guitar, covered with blanket.

On the return flight back home, I gazed upon the dominant mountain ranges of Washington State, where cold glacier lakes and thick forested patches of green broke through winters snowy blanket. The sky darkened as we flew further north, with the sun setting just as we made our approach to Bellingham . At home now, The lights on the Christmas tree hover peacefully between the branches, in the silent night.