Countless words have been written about John Lennon over the years so I don’t really think there’s anything new or profound I can add.  I was just a kid in elementary school when he died exactly 29 years ago so I was too young to really understand his impact and why his death hit people so hard.  I grew up listening to the Beatles so the music was a part of my life from my earliest memory and of course it was great.  But it wasn’t until I was much older before I understood that the Beatles and John Lennon, in particular, was about more than just awesome music.

I was 18 and had moved out to New York to live on my own.  I didn’t know anyone and I was broke, miserable and lonely.  I used to take long walks all over Manhattan because there was nothing else for me to do and I often found myself in Central Park.  This one afternoon, I was walking through the Strawberry Fields section of the park and saw this woman sitting under a tree with her guitar and she started singing John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy.”  She was really good and a crowd started to gather (including me) to sing along. 

I had heard the song many times before and knew Lennon had written it for his young son Sean but I never really paid close attention to the lyrics until that day.  I was struck by how simple yet so profound the words were (“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans…”)

Seeing these strangers sharing this lovely song together like old friends, made me believe that rock n’ roll, and art in general, could really change the world.  Art could really bring people together and touch people’s lives in a real way.  There may be times now when I find that sentiment hard to believe, but never while I’m listening to a John Lennon song.