John Lennon & Wishes

John Lennon's oft-quoted lyric that "life is what happens to you while your making other plans" comes to mind on the 30th anniversary of his murder. As I get older, it's an undeniable fact that one's life is defined, in a sense, by a series of random and possibly senseless events you wish had never happened. I wish our friends Jim W and Susan hadn't left us too soon, that 9/11 had never happened, and that I could revise out of my history any number of other things which, unfortunately, don't necessarily lose their resonance over time. There are religous and psychological explanations available for all our disasters, but at the end of the day, I suppose it's about deflecting alot of it so you can keep moving forward with purpose and pleasure, whatever the reason why.

I certainly wish John Lennon had never been killed. It's a voice we've all missed. So today let's just recall a few of his more amusing and interesting quotations:

"I wanted to be a fisherman but I couldn't because I was a f**kin genius."

"The world went mad and used us as an excuse."

"What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interested in being a dead f***ing hero. ... So forget 'em, forget 'em." (speaking about his critics in a Rolling Stone interview)

"You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate."

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."

"If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it."

"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."

"It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here? "

"How could she say to me 'Love will find a way'"

"I'm a loser, and I'm not what I appear to be."

"Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, just rattle your jewelry."

"We live in a world in which we hide to make love.. while violence takes place during the Sun´s light."

"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all."

"Avante Garde is french for 'bullshit'."

"Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall."

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you Julia."

I'll close with an interesting quote this week I came across by Giles Harvey, writing on NY Books. Speaking of Lennon's classic songs like "Strawberry Fields" and "A Day In The Life," he said "For someone like myself, born several years after Lennon’s murder, it is difficult to believe there was a time when these songs didn’t exist: they seem like a part of nature." I think Lennon would be happy with that.