“Everyone wants to be treated like gold—even if they’re only silver.”—Unknown
It was seven o’clock on a slightly drizzly, busy Saturday night and the 405 freeway was jammed with cars. Unlike what you may see in the movies, there were no horns honking, no raised fists, or yelled epithets. Los Angeles drivers know there’s bunched up traffic on Saturday night and know that fretting about it won’t get them where they’re going any faster. So everyone waited patiently in their metal cubicles as they snaked along to their various destinations.
I was on my way from a holiday party in Palos Verdes to a family dinner in Chatsworth. I knew it would be a two-hour journey between parties, but was willing to pay that price to attend both. Tired of music stations, I searched the talk show formats. Political rants? No, thanks. News? Nope. Then I heard the familiar voice of Garrison Keillor, with his radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. Music, light banter, jokes, stories…ah, perfect!
Garrison started talking about John Lennon and his legacy of music. He wondered what people of the future 200 years from now would think of his memorial plaque in New York City that said “Strawberry Fields”—would they remember John and his music? Or would they think that someone grew strawberries there?
After light chuckles from the audience at that, Garrison announced a sing-along of John’s song, Imagine. You could hear the rustle of papers as an assistant passed out the music and words to everyone. The song started, and the first man started to sing in a beautiful baritone, the first lines:
“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...”
As he completed his turn, the audience burst into applause, with hoots and whistles of appreciation.
The next man sang with vigor and in perfect pitch,
“Imagine there's no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...”
Again the audience cheered, hoots, whistles, feet stomping.
Then a young girl sang tentatively, slightly out of tune and very fast, running four lines together in the space of one:
“Imagine-no-possessions-I-wonder-if-you-can-No-need-for-greed-or-hunger-A-brotherhood-of-man…”
She stopped hesitantly.
“Great!” Garrison beamed, and still again the audience cheered and applauded wildly, with no loss of enthusiasm and no fewer whistles.
The final verse was sung by a woman who was on-key perhaps somewhere in the 8th dimension, but not in this one:
“You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one.”
Hoots, hollers, whistles, cheers, giddy applause. It was a sisterbrotherhood of man in that room, where everyone’s contribution was acknowledged and appreciated, regardless of talent or tune or ability or sex or race or age or creed. Their world was one. And I was one with them, too, as I listened. I wept at the beauty of the words of this song and the beauty of the singing of it with such raw passion and reverence.
Thank you, Garrison—and you, too, John Lennon, wherever you are—for this glowing memory of a rainy Saturday night stuck in traffic on the 405 with my brothers and sisters.
Copyright, 2003
Chellie Campbell
Author, The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire
www.chellie.com
Imagine - To learn more about this author, visit Chellie Campbell's Website.
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Chellie Campbell
(Visit Chellie's Website)
Chellie Campbell is the creator of the
popular Financial Stress Reduction®
Workshops, and the author of The Wealthy
Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire, both
published by Sourcebooks, Inc. She is one
of Marci Shimoff's “Happy 100” in her
current NYT bestseller Happy for No Reason
and contributed stories to Jack Canfield’s
recent books You’ve Got to Read This Book!
and Life Lessons from Chicken Soup for the
Soul. She is prominently quoted as a
financial expert in The Los Angeles Times,
Pink, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime,
Essence, Woman’s World and more than 35
popular books. For more information, visit
her web site www.Chellie.com or email her at Chellie@
Chellie.com
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