Wednesday, December 8, 2010

All You Need


It's cold outside and it's December 8th which means that John Lennon's been gone for thirty years and it's also the anniversary of my first marriage which has been gone for about thirty years as well.

"John Lennon, Shot, Killed," was the headline of the article in the paper I pulled out of my newspaper box on the morning of my anniversary after I did my run and I didn't stop crying for about a year.

Jessie and I were recently talking about how every generation discovers the Beatles and how everyone knows Beatles songs. You can't help it. They are a part of our consciousness now, like knowing that the sun comes up in the morning, it gets cold in winter.

Obladi, Oblada.
Ah-lah.

I read the news today, oh boy.

I was a kid when John Lennon made the big mistake of saying that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
Although he was, at that point in time, correct, it enraged a huge segment of the world's Christian population.
He went on to apologize, saying that the Beatles weren't better than Jesus, just more popular.
Bless his heart.



Bless his heart.

I have always considered it one of the blessings of my life that I was there when music exploded and every musician could dip his brush in whatever form of music had ever been made or played or done and made it his or her own and it was amazing.
There were no rules.
People look back at what we call The Sixties and think of that time as a bit of a goofy departure from reality.
Let me tell you something- it was far more than that.
It was a world-wide shift in consciousness. It was a coming-together and a forming-of-a-tribe and it was a movement and instead of being invested in war or territory or possessions it was invested in the idea that there could be peace, there could be love and that those words had meaning and instead of having a leader who raised armies, there was music, there were people raising their voices in song.
It was the music that joined us all.
And the best, the most important, the most magical, the most pure, on-message music of it all came from the Beatles and well, okay, if you weren't there, you can't understand and that makes me so sad.

John wasn't a hero in the commonly known sense of the word. He didn't fight in a military battle, he was in no way, either self-proclaimed or observed, perfect.
He did not walk on water or change water into wine.
No.
But with his mind, he changed the world.
With his music and his bandmates, he changed this world.

Here. I've posted this before but let's do it again. This was what the Beatles did on the very first global television link on June 25, 1967.



Yeah.
What more could I add to that?

Not much, but I will say that if you take the time to listen to that you might be lucky enough to have the song playing in your head all day and that would be a lovely thing.

And remember this- it may sound corny and it may sound cliche to say that all you need is love, but if you understand what the true meaning of love is with all of its obligations and power, you'll understand that it is as true as the sun coming up in the morning.

With love...Ms. Moon

18 comments:

  1. He was my favorite of the Beatles. Hard to believe it has been 30 years. My how time and life does go.

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  2. I will never in my life forget you crying at the dinner table that morning.

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  3. Oh yes, I want that song to sing in my heart all day today!!!

    I, too, cried for a year and longer, every time I listened to Double Fantasy, especially Beautiful Boy.

    I am crying now, as well, in memory of John, in nostalgia, in your beautiful words that express everything so perfectly.

    Mary Moon, I love you, yea, yea, yea.

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  4. Syd- The thinking man's Beatle. Thirty years seems impossible, doesn't it?

    DTG- Oh, baby.

    lulumarie- Yes. I was heavily into Double Fantasy when it happened. I wore that record out. Still one of my most favorites. I love Yoko's work on it. It's a love song- that whole album. A portrait of love with all of its hardships, rewards, glory and pain.

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  5. I find the inscription at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport "above us only sky" strangely comforting. I've asked my family to play "Imagine" as my funeral song. That song has always made me cry.

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  6. Yea, it made no sense then and still does not that he was killed.

    Keeping fond memories of all things Beatle today.

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  7. One of the saddest days of my life was when John Lennon was killed and I don't think I will ever get over it.

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  8. This is beautiful and so are you and so was John. Thank you for writing it.

    Love,

    SB

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  9. What can I say? I miss John too. I love you. I love music. I love that I got to see it explode in the sixties, that it shaped my life more than any other thing besides love. I love that you posted these video for us to listen to. Hope your tears are dry and you are having a great day, full of LOVE. xo

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  10. I have been thinking about you and John all day. When I was a kid, somehow I got it into my mind that you and Yoko were friends. I thought she wrote you a postcard once. Maybe I still think it. Maybe you are friends who have not met. I love you, Mama.

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  11. callme- I heard "Imagine" today referred to as the world's most popular secular hymn. I buy that.

    Ms. Fleur- You are exactly right. No sense.

    Lisa- All you need.

    Lois- I think most of us are still wandering around thinking, "Where did he go?"

    Ms. Bastard-Beloved- I love the picture you posted.

    Mel- Aren't we lucky? Yes.

    May- I wrote her a letter and I got a little note back. I have it somewhere. You didn't make it up although no, we are not really friends. I would love to be her friend, though. Oh. I would love that SO much. She's such a fascinating little artist/woman/peacemaker. And I say "little" only in the physical sense. She is huge, in my mind, in every other way.

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  12. Thank you. I've been weepy all day. I called my exhusband because he was with me when we heard the news on the car radio and I was hugely pregnant. I asked him do you remember and he said yes and we spoke quietly with great reverence the way you speak in churches.
    Rebecca

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  13. Amen. Just amen with extreme sadness still and always hope.

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  14. Yes. Yes.

    I don't understand how so many people that were alive then can still not get the message today.

    I love you.

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  15. hi, the message is even true here where we are not having the sun for 2 months, all up here in the cold arctic North, and I remember when I was in London in Summer 1967 in a youth club all day playing: all you need is love, and since then I have tried to live according to that, a simple life with my lovely family in my thrifted overalls !:) lol from almost the North pole !

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  16. Radish King- Wow. That got me. Mostly because although I am friends with my own ex now, when John got killed, it somehow gave me the impetus to divorce that husband. That and Double Fantasy. It was a huge, fast shot of reality- this is life, it is short, this is love.
    Even in John's death, I learned something which changed my life.

    Joy- Yes. Exactly. Sadness and hope.

    Mwa- Well, every prophet is ignored by many. We all know that.

    Niels- We are overall brother-and-sister. And we believe in love. Thanks for writing. I hope there is light in your life, even if the sun does not shine.

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  17. dear sister (what an honor!), yes, sure my light is first of all my dear wife and my grandson, you know what I mean!

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.