Imagine That!

Bu2

Imagine This!

My take on what John Lennon was talking about:

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

John is saying, imagine no religion at all. Imagine just getting up in the morning and doing your day’s work in order to bring food to the table. Imagine not even praying before you eat that meal. Imagine not praying for rain, or no rain. Imagine just depending upon yourself to make sure that the crops get to your table. Imagine, too, that if you make love to your spouse or soul mate, that you can do so without having to worry about going to hell for fornicating. Imagine just doing your thing all day, coming home to your spouse or loved one or roommate, and knowing that you can eat together and enjoy each other’s company, and then go to bed, with or even without each other.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

John is saying, imagine that there is no Russia. No America. No Middle East. No China. No Japan. The earth that we occupy is nothing more than the earth that we occupy. We all have a common goal in keeping that earth healthy. We all have a common goal in protecting that earth. People who are separated by an ocean from us see the sun rise and set at a different time from us. That’s our only difference. We don’t have appointed leaders and representatives governing our pieces of the earth and squabbling over the earth’s riches and treasurers. We all just abide on the soil and live off of it, in peace.

You may say that 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

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

John is saying what every man, woman and child on this planet should say: I don’t own this land. I don’t own this earth. I don’t own this planet. What I do own, I will gladly share with the other occupants of this earth and planet, in order to help them. Because when it comes down to it, what I own today may become fodder tomorrow, if I die. What I own today on paper means nothing tomorrow, when I cannot even own my last breath. Do I care what skin color my neighbor has, if he helps me grow my corn? Do I care what my healer looks like, if he keeps my heart beating another day? Do I care whether we all speak English or Spanish or Swahili, as long as we can talk with one another, and share with one another?

What I own means nothing, what I am used to means nothing.....but what I need, and what I'm willing to give.....THOSE mean everything under the sun.

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Peace,
Bu

Jeanwah

That's pretty much my take on the song, too, Bu!
No boundaries, no "ownership", no gods. We're just here, we're all one people, why not we all get along and appreciate what we have? If we all believed in the good of each other, ourselves as humans, and respected the planet we live on, we'd all live as One.

surferdude

Jeanwah wrote:

That's pretty much my take on the song, too, Bu!
No boundaries, no "ownership", no gods. We're just here, we're all one people, why not we all get along and appreciate what we have? If we all believed in the good of each other, ourselves as humans, and respected the planet we live on, we'd all live as One.

Pretty funny song coming from a guy who continued to copyright his songs long after he had made enough money to last ten lifetimes. Just another guy preaching his religion while living a completely different way.

dunkman

Jeanwah wrote:

That's pretty much my take on the song, too, Bu!
No boundaries, no "ownership", no gods. We're just here, we're all one people, why not we all get along and appreciate what we have? If we all believed in the good of each other, ourselves as humans, and respected the planet we live on, we'd all live as One.

the video for this song feaured John sitting at a white Steinway piano in his mansion in Surrey... its quite easy to sing about "no possessions" when you're smothering in your own wealth.

for the record, i love John Lennon... but his is a skewed vision of an unachievable utopia

angelica

John Lennon's vision already exists. The majority of people are too caught up in their scripts and dramas to see. And yet, people are awakening all the time.

This vision is a little different than it seems on the surface because many people continue to see through their filters which are about the past, rather than what really exists, now, in truth...but the Truth is still here all around us. We're awakening to what Is. We live on this glorious planet, and have amazing potential all around us in all moments to create amazing things. We can drop the veils of illusion any time we so choose.

Jeanwah

surferdude wrote:

Pretty funny song coming from a guy who continued to copyright his songs long after he had made enough money to last ten lifetimes. Just another guy preaching his religion while living a completely different way.

It's easy to throw that back on someone who earned what he did, decently, through talent and intelligence. He may have been rich but he didn't roll around in his money and gloat about it either. Nothing about him was greedy.

dunkman

Jeanwah wrote:

It's easy to throw that back on someone who earned what he did, decently, through talent and intelligence. He may have been rich but he didn't roll around in his money and gloat about it either. Nothing about him was greedy.

He bought a Rolls-Royce that he paid The Fool to paint in psychedelic colours.

He insisted his world famous glasses were not 9 or 18 carat gold but 24!!! he also paid a fortune for polaroid lenses for them.

anyway, i agree he became rich through talent and intelligence.. but then so did Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, etc... and i for one wouldnt listen to their lectures of "living without posessions" until they were singing it from a shack and had given all their money to some suitable cause... like the Scottish National Party for instance

decides2dream

dunkman wrote:

He bought a Rolls-Royce that he paid The Fool to paint in psychedelic colours.

He insisted his world famous glasses were not 9 or 18 carat gold but 24!!! he also paid a fortune for polaroid lenses for them.

anyway, i agree he became rich through talent and intelligence.. but then so did Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, etc... and i for one wouldnt listen to their lectures of "living without posessions" until they were singing it from a shack and had given all their money to some suitable cause... like the Scottish National Party for instance

agreed.


i adore john lennon and all that he stood for. he did preach of a utopia, and i appreciate that he did. his words still resonate for me today, as i am sure they do for countless others. we live in the world we do, and sure...that may not change drastically, we may not want it to change that drastically...but we can still aspire to noble things and ideals. i love my life and living the way i do...so while i don't see this 'utopia' being in reality...i think such ideals are healthy, and give us cause to care and work towards goals that benefit overall society.

sometimes i think it is merely in presenting the unattainable....or looking to the stars......that we are at the very least inspired to care and do whatever good we can in our lives with what we have of ourselves.

chopitdown

So what he's really saying is imagine everyone is the same and has the same beliefs and feelings then it will be fine. Have no room for individual thought or philosophy...that sounds great to me :rolleyes:

jamtemplechains

this is a random ass thread. the lyrics in lennon's imagine weren't all that cryptic or subtle...i think everybody's had a pretty good idea of what this song is about since it first played.
he's the man, by the way.