It Was 25 Years Ago Today

R.I.P. John Lennon 1940-1980

You are remembered, loved and hated by many people for many things. You have been deified in rock history as a songwriter that could do no wrong. You have been elevated as the patron saint of world peace. Yet you were the everyman, doing drugs, having noisy sex at a party as your wife listened in the adjoining room, nicking other people's work and getting sued for it, migrating and undergoing primal therapy. You were no (working-class) hero. You stumbled from one identity to the next--mop-top to hippie, Liverpudlian to New Yorker--as lost as any of us. Your struggles came out in your solo material, borne aloft by your distinctive whine that grew thinner and cracked as you searched for redemption in your later years.

Your 'bagism' and anthems of love, therefore, may not have been visionary--they may have merely been fashionable posturing; self-delusional reinvention; an attempt to stand for something. It is easy to read your biography either way. But I know deep down you really cared about people, and had a profound understanding of the beauty of life. I know because of a song you wrote in 1965. It is my favourite song of all time, and I don't care what the popular opinion is. Screw "Imagine", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Power to the People", really. This song sets you apart as someone with a truly uncommon grace and largeness of heart.

In My Life

There are places I'll 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 love you more.

Six years after learning these words, this song still gives me goosebumps and brings wetness to my eyes. It touches so close to the bone of the human condition, and what it means to live and love. Thank you, John, for leaving this as a reminder to all of us.