Thursday, December 8, 2011

December 8th 1980, The Day I Grew Up

The Beatles came onto the world stage at a time when the desire for change had reached a pinnacle with the youth, though many others fought against it. It wasn't so much as a single age, but a generational age that spanned many years and many lives. A generation for hope, a generation with thoughts to end wars, a generation filled with the desire to make the world a better place. And it is my belief that this hope continues today. Then, Kennedy was president, though he would leave us too soon, as would Martin Luther King, Medger Evers, and Robert Kennedy. All voices for change, all taken by an assassin's bullet.

If you are part of "my generation", your life changed December 8, 1980. That's the day John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building, The Dakota, in New York City by crazed fanatic Mark David Chapman at 11:07 pm. That was the day I realized my own mortality. It was the day that I grew older, the day I grew up. Never again would I dream of The Beatles and a reunion tour, something that everyone thought would happen as the "boys" grew older and more mellow with age. John Lennon lost his chance to age that day. I'm now older than John Lennon will ever be, but my dreams haven't died. John Lennon's words ring as true as today they did then, thirty-one years ago....

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

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

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, 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

Just imagine... Join the ranks of the dreamer... It's easy if you try...

And it still rings so true... Imagine.

My children are the new face of Beatles fans, though they never heard John Lennon live, never experienced the mania of the Beatles. But, the hope lives on, as does the music.