As Leonard Cohen said himself, "'The Traitor' was about the feeling that we have of betraying some mission that we were mandated to fulfill, and being unable to fulfill it, and then coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfill it, and that the deeper courage was to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you found yourself”.
The whole idea that we have a mission in life to fulfill implies a belief that life is not random. We have a destiny that we act out with certain people who come into our lives. When we encounter them, there is a kind of connection that we do not have with other random people. We know them, and they know us. Some of these can be romantic connections, such as the one the song describes. These connections have a strange kind of magical energy to them when they happen. When you meet someone that you have this kind of connection with, you may be inclined to think that you will spend the rest of your life with them. You even have a powerful inner sense that guides or “judges” from the “Other Side”, the unseen spirit world, have brought you together to fulfill some kind of life purpose. This might sound like a fantasy to a skeptic, but, to people who experience this kind of thing directly and personally, it is real as anything.
Unfortunately, something often makes these connections problematic over the course of time. One of the people involved ends up betraying the other in some way. Karma gets in the way.
It can be painful to be the person who ends up being let down. But, as this song illustrates, it can also be painful and difficult to be the person who ends up letting the other down. In this case, L.C. talks about a woman who trusts and needs him, but he finds himself unable to stay. Because she needs him, he stays longer than he would have, feeling guilt at the prospect of abandoning her. But, though he stays on, his heart is simply no longer in it. He goes through the motions in a way that seems mechanical, and she, of course, comes to realize it. Eventually she herself withdraws from the situation emotionally. The whole thing becomes empty, a tragic dead end.
As the story goes, Leonard Cohen found himself in situations like this a number of times in his life. When it happened, he would eventually leave the woman he was with for someone else in an abrupt way. People blamed him for his inability to stay or to commit in a relationship. There may have been reason to think that he was at fault in a number of ways. But, as this song illustrates in an exceptionally insightful, poetic way, there is another side to the story.
As Leonard Cohen said himself, "'The Traitor' was about the feeling that we have of betraying some mission that we were mandated to fulfill, and being unable to fulfill it, and then coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfill it, and that the deeper courage was to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you found yourself”.
The whole idea that we have a mission in life to fulfill implies a belief that life is not random. We have a destiny that we act out with certain people who come into our lives. When we encounter them, there is a kind of connection that we do not have with other random people. We know them, and they know us. Some of these can be romantic connections, such as the one the song describes. These connections have a strange kind of magical energy to them when they happen. When you meet someone that you have this kind of connection with, you may be inclined to think that you will spend the rest of your life with them. You even have a powerful inner sense that guides or “judges” from the “Other Side”, the unseen spirit world, have brought you together to fulfill some kind of life purpose. This might sound like a fantasy to a skeptic, but, to people who experience this kind of thing directly and personally, it is real as anything.
Unfortunately, something often makes these connections problematic over the course of time. One of the people involved ends up betraying the other in some way. Karma gets in the way.
It can be painful to be the person who ends up being let down. But, as this song illustrates, it can also be painful and difficult to be the person who ends up letting the other down. In this case, L.C. talks about a woman who trusts and needs him, but he finds himself unable to stay. Because she needs him, he stays longer than he would have, feeling guilt at the prospect of abandoning her. But, though he stays on, his heart is simply no longer in it. He goes through the motions in a way that seems mechanical, and she, of course, comes to realize it. Eventually she herself withdraws from the situation emotionally. The whole thing becomes empty, a tragic dead end.
As the story goes, Leonard Cohen found himself in situations like this a number of times in his life. When it happened, he would eventually leave the woman he was with for someone else in an abrupt way. People blamed him for his inability to stay or to commit in a relationship. There may have been reason to think that he was at fault in a number of ways. But, as this song illustrates in an exceptionally insightful, poetic way, there is another side to the story.