John Lennon

I have been reading posts mourning the murder, 32 years ago, of John Lennon.  It doesn't seem that long ago, does it?  The most moving post was a plea from Julian not to make him too sad today.  I cannot imagine what it must be like to have the pain of this loss tossed in your face every year.  Most of the people posting, I am fairly certain, never knew or even met John Lennon.  We knew his music, not him.  When I think about John Lennon, which I sometimes do when I hear some of his music, I try to remember not how he died, but how he lived.  How his music touched and moved a generation. How his words and his melodies will continue to resonate, long after all of us are gone as well.  His music makes us dance, laugh sing and dream.  We think about the themes of anger and hope that carry through his work and the promise of the work he was beginning again in 1980;the thoughtful man he had become from the brash young "mop top" of our youth.  We miss the public John, the witty public face he presented.  There is a line from a poem about JFK  "What he was, he was.  What he is fated to become depends on us.  Remembering his death, how we choose to live will decide it's meaning."  Wise words when anyone dies, but especially poignant in the death of someone with so much more to do.  So for today, do not mourn John, celebrate him.  Sing dance and laugh. Listen to some good music. Rejoice.