“All We Are Saying is give Peace a Chance”…. In memory of John Lennon.

Saturday 1442 – 8th December 2o12

If you have come to my blog from a link in an Amnesty International email this is the article you are looking for Still Shining a Light in the Darkness . Just click on the name and it will bring you there… of course I don’t mind you reading this one too !

It was impossible to let this day go past without thinking of John Lennon. He died this day 8th December 32 years ago,in front of his wife Yoko Ono as they returned to their New York City apartment.. a sad day indeed for Love, Peace and Music.

Do you remember where you were that day and what you were doing?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. 

I remember it vividly because I was living in a dilapidated 2up-2down cottage in rural Ireland. We had no running water, my husband at the time used to bring 5 gallon drums of water from a natural spring. The house was cold because the only heating we had was a tiny open fire in the sitting room. The sash window was so rotten that the bottom of it, where it had rotted away, was held together by roughly applied concrete.. yes I DID say concrete..

But more memorable than all that was the fact that I was 9 months pregnant with my delightful daughter Katy and she was born 7 days after John’s death on the 15th December. I remember being terribly shocked and upset when I heard the news..

Being of a certain age  I grew up listening to the early Beatles and watched as they passed through Psychedelic phases, Earth Mother ( well okay father) stages, the drugs, the women; for example Linda Eastman, never forgiven for taking Paul away from female fans and likewise Yoko Ono accused of being responsible for splitting up the Beatles ( not so! )  until they eventually split up and went on to do their own things..

I’m just going to write about one side of John that has always stayed with me ..  that of the Peace campaigner.

I remember at the tender age of  15  (1969) being so impressed by John and Yoko’s bed-ins when they spent 2 weeks in bed in the Amsterdam Hilton advocating Peace.

At the time John said  “Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world’s clowns, if by doing it we do some good.”I was inspired.

I’m sure many of you of a certain age like myself  will remember those immortal lines “Everybody’s talkin’ about Bagism, Shagism, dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, That-ism, ism, ism, ism” from John’s song Give Peace a Chance.  If you click on the bed peace photo above you can listen to the song while you read the rest of this post.

How many of you remember what bagism was ? Here’s a quote from Wikipedia –

“Bagism involved literally wearing a bag over one’s entire body. According to John and Yoko, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged by others on the basis of skin color, gender, hair length, attire, age, or any other such attributes”

The couple had earlier appeared in a bag, at The Alchemical Wedding an underground artists’ gathering, at London’s Royal Albert Hall in late 1968. The event was put on by the Arts Lab and BIT (infoshop), which sought to challenge audiences to be participants rather than passive consumers. John and Yoko climbed into a large, black velvet bag on stage, sat cross-legged, knee-to-knee, hunkered down and closed the bag. They moved only twice in 45 minutes, hunkering further down. This was a strong challenge to the audience

Yoko said that bagism was inspired by the theme of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, which was “One sees rightly only with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes.” She hoped that the bag, by hiding her and John’s physical appearance, would make their essence or the essence of their message visible.

I’m quite sure John  wasn’t perfect but he was wakening up and trying to encourage others to do the same and work for Peace

I wonder what John would make of the world now?

I think he would be rather saddened at how far we still are from peace and how the military machine rolls on..

I have a strong feeling he’d agree with the sentiment on the world to the left.

I’ll leave this little tribute to John Lennon with what must surely be one of his most enduring songs and messages of Peace… let’s all Imagine together.. if enough of us do we’ll surely make Peace happen.

Click on the photo below to listen to Imagine. The words are as relevant now as they were in 1980 

                                                                                        .                                                                                             Saturday Girl signing off now. Have a healthy and peaceful week full of music and keep on dreaming.. It’s good for us all..

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These are obviously not my photos and pictures but I hope the creative people behind them will not mind me using them to honour John.

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You can find my photography blog Photomania here and I hope you’ll pop over and take a look if you haven’t already