Theory

"When I'm 64" is a title of a love ballad that John Lennon & Paul McCartney wrote, one of the many that won the heart and soul of people around the world.

John Lennon would have turned 64 this past Saturday (Oct 9) if he were still alive.

To mark what would have been his birthday, Yoko Ono, his widow, has organized an exhibition of his artwork in New York, where the couple lived until he was murdered.

I feel moved and there was a lump in my throat thinking how special this birthday would have been for John, if he were still here with us.

John Lennon has been my hero since I was very young and my high school friends knew it: I used to talk about him in a major English-language public-speaking exam in front of class. I deliberately choose to post this in my Philosophy Blog because I learned a lot about philosophy of life from his music.

If you listen through their work, The Beatles doesn't talk only about love, but about almost every aspect of life as well. Take "Elenor Rigby," for instance. It doesn't only touch the issue about sad lonely life of the elderly population, but it askes you thought-provoking questions on the meaning of life that still applies today. "...All the lonely people,where do they all come from? ...All the lonely people, where do they all belong?..."

I can even argue that The Beatles touches on the very essence of Buddhism in this song that they wrote and sang even before their interest in Eastern Philosophy and went to India. Elenor Rigby talks about a funeral of one of these lonely people where nobody came. They talk about the grave and the fact that "...no one was saved." How very true it is.

We can't escape our ultimate departure. This reminder coupled with the need to know where we come from and where will we go to is exactly the same thoughts that made Prince Sidhartha decide to go search for the ultimate truth, leading him to the eventual Enligtenment. It seems to me that philosophy would only become useful if one put it into action like Prince Sidhartha did.

And that was just one of the philosophy I learned from John and his songs!

Happy Birthday, John.. We miss you!

# posted by nash @ 10/11/2004 01:46:00 PM