John Lennon 25 years ago--and many others before and since

[shalanna]

I've watched with interest as the media coverage on the anniversary of John Lennon's death has continued on and off through the day on the various news channels that Mama locks on to. I was thinking that the world certainly did lose a musical genius and missed out on more music. I was also thinking that in a way, he became *more* influential for having been taken before his time (or before what we'd expect as his natural time, anyway.) Whether that's beneficial or not, I don't know.

I was also thinking of the many, many people before him and since him who have also been taken before their time. Great numbers of them in wars, acts of violence, natural disasters, simple mishaps that turned tragic. Only a few mark the passing of the not-so-famous, but they're just as important. "Time and chance happeneth to them all." Sigh.

I've always believed that the anti-war poster I have as the user icon for this post was by John Lennon. Either a teacher told me that, or I got the idea during the hippie years of my childhood. That's why I've got it over there at eleven o'clock on this post. I've always liked that poster. We had it in our sixth-grade classroom. (Teachers probably can't put such posters up nowadays in public schools. We had this one, as well as Desiderata on a psychedelic tie-die background, a mandala with some kind of Sanskrit thing, and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" over a snowy scene of a fork in a road.)

Let's combine a few homilies and say that in our own corners of the world, we'll do random acts of kindness, consider ourselves and our neighbors equal, and give peace a chance. At least for today.

Comments

[ginablack.livejournal.com]

It wasn't John Lennon who designed that. Here's (http://voice.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentAlias=_getfullarticle&aid=1281270) the story behind it. I remember it from childhood too, and think I still have some of the stamps around here somewhere.