Thinking of John Lennon 
The diary below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal and adapted for Political Cortex.
Allow me to digress from the usual politics and current events topics of my blog writing to acknowledge the anniversary of John Lennon's death. I was only eleven in 1980 and watching Monday Night Football when Howard Cosell delivered the news. I had recently learned all the lyrics to the Beatles, Rubber Soul album and was especially moved by the lyrics to "In My Life."
Personally I've never been a great believer in icons. Lennon himself delivers a stirring rebuke to the myth of icons with his classic composition God early in his solo career. Yet Lennon to me was different. Lennon was an artistic genius and international statesman.
A tormented soul Lennon in his youth was violent and got in more than his share of scraps. But in 1969 he wrote "Give Peace A Chance" and a timeless rallying cry for antiwar protesters was born. Four simple words that sent shivers down the cowardly spines of the Nixon Administration who wanted to deport him when Lennon moved to America.
By 1980, Lennon had confronted his inner demons, reconciled with his fame and established a fulfilling private life. He could jump in the studio, compose music and enjoy public adulation. And he could also retreat to his private world with Yoko and Sean. A bond was also developing with Lennon and his son Julian who had his own interest in music.
The champion of peace had found inner peace.
And a madman with a gun took it a way.
Lennon wrote "In My Life" in memory of his close friend Stuart Sutcliffe, an artist from Liverpool who died of a brain tumor. He was a young man paying tribute to a dear friend. It's perhaps the most beautiful and poetic of Lennon's songs and captures my feelings as I think of him now:
There are places I remember
all my life,
Though some have changed,
Some forever, not for better,
Some have gone and some remain.All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living.
In my life I've loved them all.But of all these friends and lovers,
There is no one compares with you,
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new.Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before,
I know I'll often stop and think about them,
In my life I'll love you more.Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before,
I know I'll often stop and think about them,
In my life I'll love you more.
In my life I'll love you
more.
KEYWORDS: Give Peace A Chance, God, In My Life, John Lennon, Julian Lennon, Liverpool, Nixon Administration, Rubber Soul, Sean Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, Yoko Ono
Sign up for a Complimentary Member Account... Join the community! It's fast. And it'll allow you to take advantage of all this site's great features!
| < Unsafe Abortion as Human Rights Abuse | Help Al Gore Seek Justice For Our Planet From Congress > |
