Walking the Wall

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

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

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
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

(beautifully sung by Jack Johnson)

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You know, I confess that I’m not much of a Beatles or John Lennon fan, I never have been. The only Beatles music I really like is the soundtrack for I Am Sam where various artists are singing Beatles music–especially Rufus Wainright’s “Across the Universe” and “Two of Us” sung by Aimee Mann & someone else.

Still, when I saw that there was a project called Instant Karma working in hand with Amnesty International to boost awareness about the crisis in Darfur, I bought the music despite it being Lennon music. I wasn’t disappointed. Their website states:

“The project will call attention to the urgent situation in Darfur where between 2 and 400,000 have died, 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes, and 4.5 million people in Darfur and hundreds of thousands in the neighboring countries of Chad and Central African Republic are at risk of starvation, disease, and further attacks.”

Thirty-four songs of John Lennon’s sung by various artists, some great, some so-so, some we could live without–but what we can’t live without is the reminder to not close our eyes to the pain going on in Darfur. A book I recently read, Days of Cain, supposed that even if we could travel back and change the holocaust–we shouldn’t. It speculated that the horror of the holocaust caused humanity to work harder to not allow other such horrors take place, that it forced us to remember and to not close our eyes. We cannot close our eyes.

Oh my love for the first time in my life,
My eyes are wide open,
Oh my lover for the first time in my life,
My eyes can see,

I see the wind,
Oh I see the trees,
Everything is clear in my heart,
I see the clouds,
Oh I see the sky,
Everything is clear in our world,

Oh my love for the first time in my life,
My mind is wide open,
oh my lover for the first time in my life,
My mind can feel,

I feel the sorrow,
Oh I feel dreams,
Everything is clear in my heart,
Everything is clear in our world,
I feel the life,
Oh I feel love.

(beautifully sung by Jackson Browne)