Remembering John Lennon

There are few moments in my life that I've loved so much that I would look forward to death just so I could come back again in another life to experience that moment all over again for the first time. -In fact, I could probably count them all on one hand.

One of them is to see my daughter born again. Playing in my first real hockey game would be in there too. Also included in this list was the first time I heard John Lennon sing on a Beatles album. I will never forget that moment, or the joy it caused my 10 year old heart to experience.

I became obsessed with everything that was "The Beatles" Anything I could get my hands on about The Beatles became my obsession. Unfortunately, by the time I had heard the voice of John Lennon and known who he was, he had already been dead for almost 2 years. He was only 40 years old...

As sobering as that thought is, I turn 40 in the spring. When people ask me how I feel about turning 40, I say "Life begins at 40!" This is exactly what Lennon said on his 40th birthday and only 2 short months later, he was shot dead in the streets of his beloved New York City outside of his home.

It was actually 3 days earlier that John Lennon gave his final interview. On a Monday night, December 8, 1980, his legacy would become complete when Mark David Chapman would shoot him dead outside the Dakota Building after Lennon was returning home with Yoko Ono, after completing his comeback album and final musical piece, called Double Fantasy.

I often wonder what Lennon's contribution would've been in the coming years had he been alive. What he would've done with Bob Geldof, Band Aid, Live Aid, Africa, and other causes in the musical world. Lennon was a leading force in the cause for peace in a time of great social unrest coming from the Vietnam War, so it was only natual to assume that he would've been involved in all of these causes.

But I guess it doesn't really matter what "might've" been with Lennon though. He accomplished far more in the 40 years of his life, and left an everlasting legacy that this world will not soon forget. I can see 2064 as being a classic moment watching the 100 anniversary of The Beatles' premiere on The Ed Sullivan Show.

So losing a man that helped create a musical revolution is something to stop and take notice of. And so today, I remember the life and contribution of what John Winston Lennon was.