9/11: Remembrance & Resolve

9/11 - Don't even have to write the year. But think of children born after 2001,babies and school kids blithely going about their days, innocent and without hatred. A blank slate. Kids who shrug and ask, "What's the big deal?" Guess that's the key for writers of history and I think the key words are remember and peace. We need to remember, but we also need to promote peace.

Trinity Church in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings proved to be a center for respite, recovery, prayer, healing, meals, and calm strength. The displays of letters written by children and folks from all over the world, teddy bears, fire/police/rescue insignias from every state, and poignant pictures give one pause.

Now, New York City has been and is in recovery and rebuild mode. There's a lot going on at the WTC site.

The hum of American engineering and resolve is evident, as is the hush at times as people peer and ponder. They point, remember, and contemplate September 11, 2001.

John Lennon's words and vision still apply. Imagine all the people, living life in peace.

John Lennon: I Never Really Knew Him

Walk into any book store and you will see shelves of books about famous people. I once thought I might write one about John Lennon and title it: "John Lennon: I Never Really Knew Him". If I had, it might be part of a new museum collection on John Lennon soon to open in NYC.

...“John Lennon: The New York City Years,” [is] an exhibition of memorabilia that opens on Tuesday and provides a glimpse of the nine years he lived in the city, from 1971 until his death in 1980. The show offers a good overview of his creative world, with examples of his art (drawings and collages, some never seen before), video clips of his performances and, most crucially, a collection of lyric sheets and production notes that, if you look closely at Lennon’s changes, additions and annotations, tell a lot about his working methods and his ways of thinking about music.

A display case along one wall in the museum’s large exhibition room holds the white New York City T-shirt, the rhinestone Elvis pin and other items of clothing he wore in famous photographs (with the photographs beside them). Another includes letters, documents and newspaper clippings about his fight to avoid deportation, ostensibly because of a drug conviction in Britain (but really, Lennon always believed, because the United States government found his peace campaigning and political engagement irritating).

Four large video screens play music clips and experimental films. And five cases in the middle of the room present songwriting memorabilia, including handwritten manuscripts for “Imagine” (on New York Hilton note paper), “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” (with cross-outs and lyric changes) and about a dozen others, as well as picture sleeves from a few of Lennon’s singles and the Grammy he won, posthumously, for “Double Fantasy,” in 1981.

John was my absolute favorite Beatle. From the moment I first watched the group perform on The Ed Sullivan Show I was hooked. I wanted to BE John Lennon.

I might just need to take a train ride to the city.

Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus quip

WHO CARES? I certainly don't.

John Lennon made a valid point when he compared the popularity of religion versus the popularity of The Beatles at the peak of their musical career. It seems a safe bet to say that The Beatles were more popular than religion with kids in England, and around the world.

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. ... I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

He later said:

"I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a journalist friend (Maureen Cleave), and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think — as Beatles, as those other Beatles like other people see us. I just said "they" are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way."

Reporter: Some teenagers have repeated your statements — "I like The Beatles more than Jesus Christ." What do you think about that?

Lennon: "Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this."

The comment caused a stir among some religious leaders in the United States. Albums were burned, and some parents refused to let their kids attend a Beatles concert. I was 13 at the time and it didn't seem like such a big deal to me.

It actually seems like a bigger deal that the Vatican has decided to make a statement about it today! Is it a moved designed to try and bring Baby Boomers back into the fold? Is the Vatican simply trying to get attention, and if so why? I'd be curious to know what my good friend Fran at Fran I Am thinks.

What do you think is the motivation behind this? Inquiring minds want to know.