Pen-Elayne on the Web

But I'm Not The Only One

Jeanne d'Arc in today's Body & Soul entry (see left bar for link) reminds us that today is the anniversary of John Lennon's birth. I totally forgot in my sleepiness (the result of being out late last night with Robin and a visiting Colleen Doran - who gave a marvelous talk at Jim Hanley's Universe about How To Get Organized - and Heidi MacDonald and Leah Adezio and others, and thank you Sarah Anderson for the compliment on this blog!), and I'd much rather remember his birth anniversary than his death anniversary, which ranks second only to 9-11-01 in my personal "I remember what I was doing the exact moment" pantheon (I was alive when JFK was murdered and I'm sure they sent us home from school but I have no specific recollection of the day, and I wasn't yet politically minded when RFK and MLK were assassinated). On the evening Lennon was shot, I remember hearing something on the 11:00 news, then I fell asleep and woke with a start shortly after, and I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that at that moment he was gone. That kind of death-certainty has never happened to me before or since, and I hope to never experience it again.

But as I say, I'd much rather remember Lennon's life and his legacy, and since as I've mentioned before I like celebrating birthdays I plan to mark the occasion by re-reading the brilliant Spaniard in the Works and In His Own Write tonight. Lastly, I thought I'd pass along that only yesterday (as opposed to "Yesterday"), thanks to Robin, I was twigged onto the real meaning of "We Can Work It Out." I always thought it was this great song advocating compromise. But, as with so many things in which Lennon had a hand, if you look beneath the surface you realize it's exactly the opposite. The narrator cannot understand why - in fact, is practically indignant that - the person being addressed (i.e., the listener) continues to hold the opinion that he/she espouses, and warns that if he/she doesn't see things in the same way as the narrator, "we might fall apart before too long." All that "life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting" is just placating, to get the listener to "try to see things my way." A presage of things to come? One wonders.

HB, John. You're loved and missed and still have the ability to get people thinking, all these years later.