Imagine | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Kathy Manos Penn is a native of the “Big Apple,” who settled in the “Peach City” – Atlanta. A former English teacher now happily retired from a corporate career in communications, she writes a weekly column for the Dunwoody Crier. Read her blogs and purchase her book, “The Ink Penn: Celebrating the Magic in the Everyday” on her website theinkpenn.com.

    I wrote a version of this column in the summer of 2013 as a blog. I'd heard John Lennon's Imagine on the radio and was unable to get the tune and the sentiment out of my head. After our divisive and rancorous 2016 presidential election and the ensuing sometimes destructive protests, I thought of it again. Add to that situation the never-ending conflicts in the Middle East and the violence that occurs all too often in the name of religion, and I can't help but think how sad it is that Lennon's lyrics, written in 1971, are nowhere near a reality some 40 years later.

Imagine

       by John Lennon
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... Aha-ah...

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...

You may say 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...

You may say 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


    I hadn't realized, until I googled the song, that it had been recorded for the end credits at the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics, nor that it has been, since 2005, played "just before the New Year's Times Square Ball drops in New York City."

    As I sit here writing, I'm humming the tune and reflecting on Wikipedia's description of Lennon's song: "The best-selling single of his solo career, its lyrics encourage the listener to imagine a world at peace, without the divisiveness and barriers of borders, religions and nationalities, and to consider the possibility that the focus of humanity should be living a life unattached to material possessions."

    To be sure, war and violence in the name of race, creed, religion, nationality and just plain greed have been going on since the dawn of time. I suppose this long, sad history doesn't give us reason to believe things will change, but thankfully, that doesn't stop most of us from continuing to "imagine" they might. Despite the political and other differences that get top billing on the nightly news, I'd like to think we can all hit the pause button and come together to wish each other, our country and the world a happy and peaceful New Year.

    Kathy Manos Penn is a Sandy Springs resident now happily retired from a corporate career in communications. Find her book, "The Ink Penn: Celebrating the Magic in the Everyday," on her website at www.theinkpenn.com. Contact her at inkpenn119@gmail.com.