Imagine

Imagine

I clearly and fondly remember John Lennon’s musical masterpiece “Imagine.” It was written and performed in a very caustic period in our history.

“You may say I’m a dreamer; but I’m not the only one.”

Wow! These words are so important to us today, considering the absolute chaos in US society. It is time for us to allow the Spirit to invade our imaginations, to reveal the truths that lie beyond our rational minds, searching the hidden depths of our very souls to understand that regardless of what is going on in our society, our feet are firmly planted in God’s Love and all-embracing arms.

To paraphrase the German professor Hans Joachim Iwand, our faith must begin where our near-atheistic leaders live and rule. At times, it seems that we are reliving the night of the cross, being abandoned by all practical realities. We are in a period of nothingness and nihilism that if left to fester will only grow and infect all of our society.

Being a retired educator, I can see the results of decades of cuts to support our public education; and with a leader in DC who is pro private education,, the masses will undoubtedly suffer. I remember touring the South in the 1970s, where the lower class schools were using history textbooks printed in the 1950s, which, as we know, omitted any reference to the Kennedys, MLK, and Vietnam.

I fear that we may be returning to these times when the individual is deemed almost worthless by our politics.

As we approach Memorial Day, I can hear the WW1 tune “The Caissons Keep Rolling Along.” Not only bringing cannons to the front, they returned the dead to the rear for burial. If our present NSA has its way, we could be involved in greater wars in the Middle East and Korea. I lost two very good friends, almost like older brothers, to the guns in Korea in 1952. I lost many Marine brothers in the rice paddies of Vietnam. I don’t want to remember my students who enter the military after graduation, only to sacrifice their lives again in the frozen ground of Korea, or the arid sands of the Middle East.

I know this is not a pleasant image this beautiful May morning; but, listening to Lennon’s “Imagine” on the way home from an early doctor’s appointment, brought these memories to rethink:

“Imagine all the people living for today;

Imagine all the people living life in peace;

Imagine all the people sharing all the world;

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one. . .”

Amen, brother John!