~It Was 27 Years Ago Today....~ posted 12/8/2007 10:06:31 PM | 11 kudos what's this?     report abuse

LipGlossQueen9

I almost didn't think I was going to post this blog.

I didn't think it was right, what with all the "blog wars" going on about race, class, gender, and political parties.

But...chances are , the people involved in those wars wouldn't appreciate the man I am going to write about anyway.

I am going to put it in the form of a letter. This will make it more personal for me, and easier to write.




Dear John,

First off, how are you? I hope you're well, wherever you are. I'm not so well, but that's besides the point.

John, it's been 27 years since you were assassinated and I still cry sometimes because I was never able to meet you or know you the way my parents did. You have been an inspiration and a comfort to me in ways I don't think you could ever understand.

When I first saw you, I was very little. You were on the cover of a book my father had in the bathroom along with Ringo, George, and Paul. I brought the book out, pointed to your picture, and asked

"Who's that?"
"John Lennon", he replied
"Who's he?"
"He was a Beatle."
"What happened to him?"
"He died. Someone shot him."

I remember this conversation clearly. It was a little while before my parents started exposing me to The Beatles, but I felt immediately connected to you. I never really understood why, but to this day, I still feel that way.

Growing up, you were the only Beatle I could point out and recognise until my father showed me "First U.S. Visit" and introduced me to George. Even then, I only had a crush on him; I wanted to be you.

To this day, when people ask: "If you could spend the day with anyone, living or dead, who would you spend it with", I answer "John Lennon". And do you know why? No, it's not because you fought so hard for peace, though I admire that greatly in you. It's not because of the way they portrayed you in Hard Day's Night, or anything like that.

It's because I have never in 20 years related to anyone the same way I relate to you. Your emotional rollercoaster, your anger, your bitterness, your activism, your elation....I see them all in myself. Even the way you talked reminds me of the way I talk now.

More importantly, you changed the world....and saved my life. Your songs let me know that I wasn't alone at a time in my life where I had never felt more alone. You spoke for almost an entire generation of teenagers and young adults who were dying to have their voice heard, but couldn't. So many people who were around to see The Beatles explode onto the American scene and were around to experience your untimely, tragic death have feelings for you that I can never understand.

You see...I don't understand Beatlemania. I wasn't part of it, I can't understand it.

But what I do understand is that when I was sixteen and had that pill bottle in my hand, as I heard "Yer Blues", "Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out", and "I'm Losing You"...it let me know that I wasn't alone...and it was so hard to believe at that period in my life that I wasn't the only one who was depressed and wanting to kill myself.

Sometimes I say that I wish you were still here, but in truth...when I think about it...you are. Chapman succeeded in taking your body, that much is true, but you will live forever. The spirit of John Lennon will never die...especially as long as I am alive, and ESPECIALLY if I have children (one of which will be named Lennon, by the way). You were a force in the world that will never be seen again, John, no matter how many people try to duplicate you. You were unique and amazing in ways that many people can't understand.

And perhaps someday, in a time so far off that it is hard for us to even conceive of it, people will finally realise that you were right all along. There is truly no reason for killing, for war, for organised religion, or for possession. Perhaps someday a people far more advanced than we will lay down their arms and realise it. Of course, we can only hope, and pray.

John Lennon, thank you for changing the world...and my life.

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