I've been in a bit of a funk lately. While you might think this predominantly is the result of my pain issues, you'd be incorrect. Yes, the increased pain IS an issue, but I think I deal with chronic pain better than most. I've had my entire life to get used to it! ;-)
No, my funk is based on something that happened nearly 30 years ago: the death of John Lennon. As I wrote in Radio Daze, I got a bit choked up at the time, but it was nothing major. It wasn't so much that I mourned Lennon himself; it was more that one of the Beatles died and this meant they could never perform again as a group, not that they planned to anyway.
The main reason it didn't affect me as badly as many other fans is really darn simple: I never cared for John Lennon very much. Of the Fab Four, my favorite was George Harrison. John always seemed a bit too out there for my tastes. The story of why my perspective has changed so dramatically is the subject of this post.
Since a very early age, I've been a philosopher and a rebel. I always seemed out of step with my peers and, like many others with Asperger's Syndrome, I felt I had somehow been dropped on the wrong planet! While I've always traveled to the beat of a different drum, in my younger years, that drumbeat was within the external parameters defined by society.
The best way I can explain this by offering the example of the mainstream media. Over the years, many have charged that the media has a liberal bias. This is both true and untrue. Within the parameters of corporate interests, there is no question in my mind that the mainstream media leans to the left. However, what I think most people don't understand is that the channel that has been established for media discourse is very narrow. Consequently, leaning to the left on a narrow street doesn't mean as much as leaning to the left in a limitless field.
And so it was with me. Though I leaned to the left, I did so within the established mores of society. John Lennon, on the other hand, didn't abide at all with external norms. He was a free thinker who tended to follow his own internal compass. And it is because I had not yet been able to break free of the established pathway that people like John Lennon scared the heck out of me!
I'm in a totally different place today. I've thrown off the yoke of societal expectations. Thus, I now see the man's brilliance. I now understand that he fought against external boundaries. I now recognize the gift he shared with the world and his words now speak to me like they never spoke to me before.
As I've discovered the man behind the music, his loss has meaning for me now. And so, thirty years after the fact, I grieve that tragic night of Monday, December 8, 1980.
No, my funk is based on something that happened nearly 30 years ago: the death of John Lennon. As I wrote in Radio Daze, I got a bit choked up at the time, but it was nothing major. It wasn't so much that I mourned Lennon himself; it was more that one of the Beatles died and this meant they could never perform again as a group, not that they planned to anyway.
The main reason it didn't affect me as badly as many other fans is really darn simple: I never cared for John Lennon very much. Of the Fab Four, my favorite was George Harrison. John always seemed a bit too out there for my tastes. The story of why my perspective has changed so dramatically is the subject of this post.
Since a very early age, I've been a philosopher and a rebel. I always seemed out of step with my peers and, like many others with Asperger's Syndrome, I felt I had somehow been dropped on the wrong planet! While I've always traveled to the beat of a different drum, in my younger years, that drumbeat was within the external parameters defined by society.
The best way I can explain this by offering the example of the mainstream media. Over the years, many have charged that the media has a liberal bias. This is both true and untrue. Within the parameters of corporate interests, there is no question in my mind that the mainstream media leans to the left. However, what I think most people don't understand is that the channel that has been established for media discourse is very narrow. Consequently, leaning to the left on a narrow street doesn't mean as much as leaning to the left in a limitless field.
And so it was with me. Though I leaned to the left, I did so within the established mores of society. John Lennon, on the other hand, didn't abide at all with external norms. He was a free thinker who tended to follow his own internal compass. And it is because I had not yet been able to break free of the established pathway that people like John Lennon scared the heck out of me!
I'm in a totally different place today. I've thrown off the yoke of societal expectations. Thus, I now see the man's brilliance. I now understand that he fought against external boundaries. I now recognize the gift he shared with the world and his words now speak to me like they never spoke to me before.
As I've discovered the man behind the music, his loss has meaning for me now. And so, thirty years after the fact, I grieve that tragic night of Monday, December 8, 1980.
HI RT
ReplyDeleteGreat song, really great. My husband is visibly sad every anniversary of John Lennon's untimely, unfortunate and tragic death.
I am recovering from a bad fall (see last 2 of my posts).. SO, I am in a funk since this fall happened atop the MS setback I was already fighting to recover from. phew.
Hope you have a peaceful weekend
Gail
Love to you
Peace, hope and healing.....
When John was taken from us, I was only beginning to discover his work, with and without the Beatles. Yeah, I'm a baby, or was at the time. Lennon's assassination was for me what JFK's was for my parent's generation. I will never forget where I was when the news came. Since then, for many of the reasons you mentioned above, John Lennon has become something of a hero of mine and I too mourn his passing each December.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, great song, one of John's finest moments.