Just Imagine and then Act

I am not quite of the flower power time line but have nonetheless seen and recorded a thing or two. It was 30 years ago on December 8th that Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon. Imagine… and that all gets me feeling pretty strong about things…

My ‘self” is fairly Utopic minded and altruistic, I bought into the ideas of that era, whole-heartedly I believed (and still do) the anthem and the ideas of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’… it is the ‘heart ‘path. I try to live by; Do no harm , speak your truth , loving kindness, respectfulness, mindfulness and reverence for our world and the life in it. And, I practice grace in forgiveness and humility, which can be a pretty tough row to hoe for a German born Leo-fire dragon raised in Ontario. I hold onto and strengthen ‘faith’ and trust every day that I have the privilege of fresh new breaths.

So as I listen to ‘Imagine’ and be aware that we have moved far from its possibilities, I wonder how we shifted to:

Imagine there’s no health care

Imagine there’ still genocide

Imagine building companies for the sole purpose of stealing from investors

Imagine stealing money from the poor and giving it to the rich

Imagine killing children in the streets

Imagine making trillions of pharmaceutical dollars to drug up our children for school

Imagine suing farmers for growing food grain accidentally (GMOs)

Imagine actively trying to destroy the finest hope of three generations, Barack Obama

Imagine ownership of water by the few

Imagine a government suffering from Munchhausen’s syndrome

Imagine society being only able to think in terms of fear and self

And I ask my ‘self’, ‘’self, where has all the love gone, what happened to our evolution, when did we begin to slip backwards?’’

And my ‘self’ says,’ ask the world

And when I ask the world, I am prompted through 6 departments and put on hold each time and when I finally get an answer it is to the wrong question.

So, I reflect some more about that, in one Generation we shot, The Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, well, we know the rest of the list. The thing I don’t get is how or why did all of those folks in the generation before me, decide to let go of all the great ideas that they Imagined into existence and then slowly and systematically deconstruct them one decision at a time… very unfortunate.

And then, for a moment I look in the other direction and see hope as grand-parents and grand kids, in concert, lift their hands to the sky singing , ‘Me to We’ ideas and awareness out into existence in the Universe…

So how about

Loving Kindness

Do no harm

Respect for the world around us

Yup, it’s a tall order to fill… while we still can, added here changes it from being daunting perhaps.

Time to change things,

So, Imagine,

Stay well,

And Be