World Trade Center
September 11, 2001
We shall never forget!
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
living for today
Imagine there's no country
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed nor hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will live as one.
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
living for today
Imagine there's no country
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed nor hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will live as one.
-- Words and Music: John Lennon. 1971
Never forget!
ReplyDeleteThis is by far my favorite Beatles song of all time. Sometime when you have time, go to Youtube and find this song from an episode of Glee. The cast of Glee joined a choir of deaf students who signed "Imagine" while the Glee cast sang. I am getting chills just writing this. It was so moving.
ReplyDeleteWe will never forget 9/11. I am glad however, that the USA has become a stronger nation because of that tragedy. I will always remember where I was on 9/11 just like I will always remember where I was when JFK was shot. It seems like every generation has some sort of tragedy that becomes part of their memory. I recall my mom telling my brother and I where she and Dad were when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and WWII was declared.
Maybe some day all of the dreamers will join, and the world will actually "live as one."
Hi Toots!
ReplyDeleteI came here to write a silly reply to your comment asking why I don't like wax begonias (it's because they have messy hair and leave toothpaste globs in the sink). But then I saw this post, and had to comment. Please forgive me. Please know that I LOVE to have discussions with people, especially when we don't agree.
Forgetting 9/11 is not an option; it haunts me all the time, and always will. It is still unimagineable to me.
But speaking of Imagine -- I have some problems with this song. Other than the "no possessions," because really . . . no dishes or books of my own?
No, all joking aside -- this song sketches quite a nightmare world for me. I can't imagine a world without the intellectual and emotional vigor of differing opinions and convictions. Yes, terrible things have been done in the name of religion and other strongly held beliefs, but so have many more wonderful things.
Imagining humankind "living for today"
without country -- and by extension no government? because who/what would form that government? -- and without the ennobling effects of philosphies and, yes, religions is pretty grim to me. I would not want a homogenized world, which is what this such a world as Lennon's seems to be.
I like a world with differences in cultures, beliefs, skills, social structures, ethnicities -- the whole panoply of human differences contained within one species.
Peace? Yes. Homogeneity? Please, no.
I don't think we will ever achieve perfect peace in the world, as that would mean changing our fundamental human-ness; we are a cantankerous lot. But I think our best bet is to embrace our differences and respect them, not try and eliminate them.
Peace is a noble and wonderful goal; peace among people and nations of wildly different cultures, habits and beliefs.
Geez this isn't what I expected to write. I was going to also say that my begonias shrivel and die each October, and that I feel unloved and neglected because yours come back, and need some time on the analysts couch!
Forgive me for being such a pill. I was working in a newsroom the day Lennon was shot, and this song was played constantly until it was embedded in my head ... and that's when I really listened to it, and said to myself, "What the...?"
I'm going to say Bye now -- my dog needs walking! And I've dug my hole deep enough!
Cass