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No doubt, Lennon was a controversial person who wasn't afraid to stir up the status quo with new ideas about humankind's problems and possibilities. John Lennon was more than a musician--he was a visionary and a “possibilitarian”--he saw the possibilities for our world and lived his life out loud--he wasn't attached to what other people had to say about it. Perhaps that is why he died so many years before he might otherwise have--if he had just kept his ideas and vision about a healed and connected humankind to himself he may have lived to see his 70th birthday, which is this Saturday, October 9th. I guess that is the price visionaries sometimes pay for standing in their vision of a world that works for everyone.
There is no question that John's soul lives on and, with that, what he stood for when his physical life ended. I would like to think that a little bit of John Lennon lives on in me. As a musician, as well as a keynote speaker, it has become my practice, and perhaps my way of honoring an idea whose time has come, to sing Imagine at the end of my lectures or presentations, whenever possible. When I sing Imagine I can actually feel John's presence right there next to me. Generally by the end of the first verse just about everyone is singing along and many often stand as well. I am not naive or foolish enough to think it is the “brilliance” of my delivery of the song that causes this reaction--the audience already knows the song and they are engaged in it because the meaning of the song lives in their hearts--I simply create the space for them to reconnect for a moment in time with the man and his message. It is through those listening and singing along that the message of Imagine lives on.
 I don't see John Lennon as a martyr, only as a fellow human being whose final message of peace and brotherhood is deeply etched in the walls of my mind and heart forever. Can you imagine all the people living life in peace...living for today...and sharing all the world? I can. You may say I'm a dreamer...well, you know the rest, so now, sing along.
Happy birthday John--we miss your presence but we shall long remember your gift.
Peace,
Dennis Merritt Jones
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