Leonard Cohen died a year ago. 
It's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
I wasn't a big fan of his music, until I fell in love with a girl from Montreal.
I had little choice after that, and began a crash course in his work.
If you'd like a good cry, listen to Alan Hall's poetic and moving radio documentary-->
Leonard and Marianne.

Dear Stephanie,

I miss you. Do you know? Do you really know?

Yesterday, I waited in line for 90 minutes outside the India Visa Office. It was freezing cold, reminding me of Montreal. It felt like Montreal, but you weren’t there. “Why isn’t she here? Doesn’t she know how much I miss her?” I dreamt of hiring a skywriter, so I could write “I miss you, baby” in the sky over Montreal. It was a wonderful dream. A perfect blue sky the day after a snow-storm. The little plane takes off, flies over Farine Five Roses and towards the mountain, and then releases it’s mist. But why should I tell you I miss you? No, I should say:

I love you, baby.

Everyone in the city looks up to read it. Cars slip in slushy intersections and collide into each other, but the drivers smile anyway. Everyone is smiling, because I love you, baby. Everyone is dancing, running, kissing. People in love rush off to find their beloveds. Lonely people find each other and kiss. Everyone is smiling, especially you. I imagined you in the window, next to the Christmas tree, smiling. And you would want to find me, and would know how much I miss you.

I knew that you would know it was from me, and that everyone else would think that it was from Leonard Cohen. Like he was going to put out a new novel, called “I love you, baby.”

But then I remembered the scene in Beautiful Losers  where F. is planning to blow up the statue of Queen Victoria. And then I thought that the PQ would be smiling because at last they would have a threat! Anglos are annexing the sky! I feared you would be embarrassed by my unabashed English, wondered how “je t’aime, baby” would look in the sky, and whether or not you would still know it was from me…

I thought I had better get a price quote. Alas, I learned why skywriting remains a rare art: according to airads.com, prices started at $15,000CAD.

…

Alexis, January 2013