If We Want It...

I remember the night. I was just 15. I lay in my bed listening to a voice crackling through a cheap clock radio, at a time when I probably should have been asleep.

"Former Beatle John Lennon is dead."

The news was incomprehensible. It is still incomprehensible.

We come around this anniversary every December still feeling that sense of emptiness. Wondering what might have been, what should have been, had Lennon not been taken away so soon.

Lennon's legacy is often discussed among popular media this time of year mostly from the perspective of his ideals of peace and love. His iconic song Imagine, with its simple tune and lyrics, communicate a deeply profound and thoughtful message. We are reminded once again of his efforts to change society's view of war, the famous bed-in and his defiance against the establishment.

As with all great figures in history, we tend to overlook the negatives. Lennon himself admitted that in his early years he was prone to jealousy and fits of anger. He later looked upon himself as a chauvinist. His relationship with his first wife Cynthia and son Julian took a distant back seat to his career. It eventually ended in a bitter divorce. He lost custody of Julian, who for many years Lennon all but ignored. Lennon's relationship with Beatles manager Brian Epstien is well documented. He frequently made fun of the former manager's homosexuality and his Jewish heritage, with oft times cruel and derisive language. There are many other accounts of Lennon's bad behaviour and poor judgement which I need not get into here.

The point is, Lennon was human. The iconic rock star, musical genius and the embodiment of peace and love are creations of our own perceptions, and perhaps to an extent, his own desire to shape our impressions of him. His journey was unique in that it was one lived out in the unforgiving light of the public eye, with the absurd expectations and pressure of fame.

In many ways, Lennon's life story is a far more powerful message than his greatest words or music. His is a story of youthful arrogance, failure, redemption, discovery, humility, excess and finally peace.

There will be much talk about Lennon's legacy on this day. Among those who admired and revered him, there is a growing sense that the ideals he put forth in his music and actions, died on that horrible night in the streets of New York city.

While many will gather with candles and impromptu song to remember the life of John Lennon, I wonder if perhaps we have missed something.

There is a scene in the documentary film Imagine: John Lennon in which a dishevelled young man is found wandering the grounds of Lennon's Tittenhurst Park estate in Berkshire, England. The man wants to meet Lennon because he sees him as something of a prophet, offering guidance through his music. Lennon tells the man:

"Don't confuse the songs with your own life. I mean, they might have relevance to your own life, you know, but a lot of things do. And so we've met, you know? I'm just a guy, man, who writes songs."

It was a revealing insight into what must have been an ongoing internal conflict. On the one hand an international celebrity, on the other, a regular person with dreams, fears, passions and doubts.

We might feel otherwise about Lennon, but it seems that over time he came to understand that success didn't define who he was, though it did provide a powerful platform. Nonetheless he certainly didn't think he had all the answers.

What he did know, by virtue perhaps of his own fallibility, was that each of us regardless of status are called to much greater things than can be found in fame or fortune. The words to Imagine spell out this revelation in plain yet poetic language. Before you can change the world, first you have to change your mind.

"War is over," Lennon wrote, "if we want it."

What if we could look beyond the artist, the icon, the revolutionary, and just consider those words? What if on this anniversary we pay tribute instead to the many unknown heroes among us who demonstrate compassion, acceptance and peace? What if we could find more of those qualities in ourselves?

Imagine letting go of the man who was John Lennon and make his ideals a reality instead.

I wonder if we can.