Photo by Michael Aleo on Unsplash
Yesterday would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday. His 1971 song 'Imagine' has so much relevance today.
"Imagine all the people
Living for today ...
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace ...
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world ..."
You can read the full lyrics and listen to the track here . You can also listen to Sean's recent interview with Paul McCartney here.
Writing prompt: Read John Lennon's words above again and imagine, as he did. What kind of a world would that be? Write about it without planning or editing for six minutes. Don't worry about spelling, grammar - all those things that might hold you back. Just write!
John (and Yoko) Lennon looked at the world and identified all the bad things in it. They saw religion, the system of countries and people's desire for possessions as the root of the problems in the world.
ReplyDeleteThere are probably a few more items that could be added to the list but these three encompass the vast majority. People have fought and died about these factors since humans came to walk the earth.
The lyrics admit that removing religion, countries and the desire for possessions from the world could be said to be just a dream but that does not stop John & Yoko from putting that dream forward for you to consider and maybe instill in others. Gettting the ball rolling. The lyrics say that the ball, however small and however slow moving is nonetheless doing those things now. What is needed is for more people to add to the size of the ball and push it harder.
Has this all been tried before? The only example I can think of is the creation of Communist states in the world. The USSR and China are the most prominent examples but there have been others such as Cuba, Spanish Catalonia, North Korea and others in South America. None seem to have achieved the Utopia that John sings about but that does not mean this is not the right path.
Thank you Rob for your insightful comments (never had you down for a Communist!). x
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