Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today...

25 years ago today John Lennon was gunned down in front of his NY city apartment. I can still recall feeling stunned, unable to wrap my mind around the idea. My first thought was that it was some kind of botched robbery, but as the facts unfolded I realized that John Lennon had been targeted, and assassinated.

I'll never completely understand the motivations of the assassin.  I guess that's a definition of insanity.  For myself, I have forgiven the assassin for his crime.  I think that Lennon would have too.  The assassin was not in his right mind.  Yet the enormity of his crime precludes us from ever allowing him back in society, though again, I think that Lennon would want him released if he's made well. 

There will be many posts today about John Lennon all over the internet. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why I fell compelled to write about him myself. I wasn't more than a casual fan of the Beatles, or John Lennon in my youth, yet I cannot deny the influence that they had on music, and culture on a global scale.

Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. No religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace...

The real legacy of John Lennon is the one that isn't talked about as much. The focus is usually on Lennon the artist or musician, but it's Lennon the man who is most interesting for me. All of his life he was a violent man. "I used to be cruel to my woman. I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved" were his words, not Paul McCartney's no matter what the credits say.

Yet somehow in the end, he was able to take some measure of control of his violent impulses. He never eliminated them completely. Hell, I'm not sure that any can. But he tried hard, he recognized his own flaws, and he held them up for all to see. He was without a doubt, one of the great seekers and philosophers of the 20th century.  He pushed the edges of music, art, and even life.

He was a great man, though he would have never believed it of himself.

Imagine no possesions. I wonder if you can? No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world...

One of my favorite TV shows ever made was WKRP In Cincinnati and there was an episode where the radio station was under fire from a religious group to "clean up" their broadcasts. The owner of the radio station was considering this, until one of the DJ's handed him the lyrics to one of the "obscene" songs. The song was John Lennon's "Imagine".

The preacher wanted it banned because he claimed that it said there was no God. As the station owner points out, the song does NOT say that there's no God. It just asks you to imagine it.

"Imagine" will always be Lennon's greatest work. After all, isn't imagination the most powerful tool that we poor flawed humans have? The song doesn't ask you to do anything more than think about possibilities. And that may be the most powerful message ever.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us and the world will live as one.

Amen, and amen.

~Easy

tags: music  lennon  imagine  

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