Impossible to believe that today is the 28th anniversary (a Monday, just as it was then) of the murder of John Lennon - I remember it like it was yesterday. I was living and working in Carrollton, Georgia with my husband, but had driven into Atlanta that morning to attend a full-day job-related seminar, then over to my parents' house to have dinner before heading back home later in the evening - my dad was watching football, which was interrupted with a news bulletin about the shooting.
I recall feeling sick to my stomach and not really being able to process the information - John and Yoko had just released their Double Fantasy album, which was difficult to come by because he'd been away from music for a while, but we finally procured a copy a week or so before. I kept thinking short-term of the loss for Yoko and Sean and John's fans... but also long-term in that it meant there would never be a Beatles reunion.
Strangely enough, when they released the name of John's killer, my husband recognized Mark David Chapman as one of the junior counselors when my husband was a senior counselor at the YMCA in Decatur, Georgia years earlier - what a sordid bit of synchronicity (as John was always my husband's favorite Beatle)...
Some of you know I'm a regular contributor (since early November) at Star Maker Machine, a very cool collaborative blog in which we staff members are given a theme each week and post some of our favorite songs which apply, as well as write about the history behind - thanks to Anne for sharing a lovely story song of the event a few days before...
I'd been noticing the movie Chapter 27 (based on the book below) on our OnDemand cable menu, and last night decided to watch it - Jared Leto did an unexpectedly amazing job portraying Chapman, and the film, although explaining little, was successful in providing an eerie glimpse of Chapman's irrational and random decision-making processes (at one point, after getting his album autographed, he had convinced himself to fly back to Hawaii and seek counseling)...
[ Added 12/9/08: No Peace at NBC by Roger Catlin, December 4, 2008 ]
SONG: Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon (backstory here...)
BOOK: Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon by Jack Jones
POEM: Rememberance by Rainer Maria Rilke
And you wait, keep waiting for that one thing
which would infinitely enrich your life:
the powerful, uniquely uncommon,
the awakening of dormant stones,
depths that would reveal you to yourself.
In the dusk you notice the book shelves
with their volumes in gold and in brown;
and you think of far lands you journeyed,
of pictures and of shimmering gowns
worn by women you conquered and lost.
And it comes to you all of a sudden:
That was it! And you arise, for you are
aware of a year in your distant past
with its fears and events and prayers.
QUOTE: "If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." ~ John Lennon
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