As best as I can determine, John Lennon’s Imagine was released in the US on this date in 1971, fifty years ago today. At any rate, it has been half a century and is still beloved by old and young.
The best of any art, even a popular song, ages well, and this is a perfect example. It’s a simple tune and impossible to forget. I’d repeat the lyrics, but I imagine you know them by heart.
If you really consider what it says – no country, religion or possessions – many would pause at all it proposes, but it does challenge you to imagine this world being a better place. I so hope we can all agree on that.
In the fifty years now passed, we ended one war and eventually embarked on what became our nation’s longest. If we’ve learned anything, it should be that if wars could ever be won, they certainly cannot any more. Perhaps we are finally learning that wishful thinking that the climate will take care of itself is too little and perhaps too late.
I could go on, but imagine what we could do if we learned to live as one.
Imagine.
