hi folks...i just joined this tribe and i thought i might share a blog i posted a while back concerning John...

I was over in Ireland back in April, traveling with three good friends; one night we were negotiating the high-speed labrynth that is the main highway eastward into Dublin city when I began to tell a story about being in London and almost getting into it with a police officer for spitting on a statue of Oliver Cromwell...for those of you who may not know, Cromwell was a genocidal maniac who invaded Ireland during the Occupation.

Anyway, my friend Jessica A. asked my why I would put all that energy into doing something as inconsequential as spitting on a statue and almost coming to blows with a cop over it...at first I laughed and chalked it up to being a Lowell boy, or my punk-ass Scorpio nature, but it kind of got me thinking, wow, she's quite right...as funny a story as it is (to some of us anyway), it was a HUGE waste of time....not that things always have to have a point, but it does seem, in retrospect to have been an energy drain for all involved.

I was reminded of the John Lennon song "Imagine"....that song was written at a time when John was writing alot of really angry music..."Working Class Hero", "Give Me Some Truth", "How Do You Sleep" and soforth....I mean the guy had plenty to be pissed about, what with the Vietnam War, that asswipe Nixon, a severely fucked up childhood among other things...and, being free of the Beatles, he was able to put out music that reflected that it was okay to be angry and things were not always okay and love love love...

Anyway, this particular song came about when Yoko Ono challenged him to write down a vision of a better world, put forth in a loving way...something that spoke to the higher self in us, not just another angry tongue-lashing to the forces of oppression.

John went to one of Yoko's "word paintings" for inspiration; one that simply read (I'm paraphrasing here);

"Imagine the clouds dripping from the sky;
dig a hole in your garden to catch them."

From there, John Lennon wrote what became not only his biggest hit as a solo artist, but what is widely recognized as one of his most poignant contributions to our collective psyche;

"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...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
and no religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

you may say Im a dreamer
but Im not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
and the world will live as one.

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you (we) can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

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

truly amazing what power comes from the ability to turn energy around...anyone who has those people in their life that can challenge them to rethink their approach is very blessed.