Finding the moral foundations of Leonard Cohen

The great troubadour will turn 80 next month. In the new issue of Standpoint magazine, I write:

No musician has maintained a more assured equilibrium through good times and bad, riding the swings and roundabouts of outrageous fortune and misfortune without falling prey to the temptation of an easy fix. 

And:

At 80, Leonard Cohen stands above his generation as a seer of lasting things, of values received and passed on. Other musicians have emerged richer, more famous. Some still twist and shout on stage, escorting their mob of semi-retired fans into a seventh age of twilight care. Cohen stands up there unchanged, addressing his audience with unfailing courtesy and curiosity, with a sense of continued discovery. 

What is the source of that unerring strength?

Read on here.