Monday marked the 34th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder. Each year, it’s a somber day on the calendar and a reminder that even the biggest among us can be ripped away. I found myself listening to a Lennon-protest song — “Happy Xmas” — and I considered the year that was 2014. By all measures, 2014 was a lousy experience for the world, and if you were to conduct a poll, 2014 might top a list of worst years in recent memory.
The holidays are a time for celebration, family and happiness, but the overwhelming stench of 2014 still fills our noses with its putrid scent. Regardless of your political affiliation, most of us can agree that we are glad to see 2014 move firmly into the past, and we are all hopeful that 2015 will bring our community, country and world a little more stability than it found in 2014.
The year that was shook us to the very core as humanity dealt with war across multiple continents, a plague spreading through West Africa, the crumbling of our institutions in the U.S. and a collective thought that the world and society are on the brink of total collapse.
Perhaps the retrospective atmosphere of the holidays allows us to reflect on 2014 and make whatever changes we can to better our community and world. Individually, we may not have the ability to end war in the Middle East, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, or even restore trust in those who are supposed to serve and protect us, but we can pledge to make a small difference in 2015.
What seems to be missing from our modern society is our collective will to help one another. Our sense of community seems to be disappearing along with our trust in the institutions that at one time were the glue that held together our society. If we are to ever pull ourselves out of the collective rut, then it behooves us to look inward, make incremental changes in our own lives and do what we can to spread that behavior.
It sounds like hippie rhetoric, but maybe that’s what we need during our prolonged, collective depression. We can’t dose the entire developed world with Prozac, but if we each take small steps in the right direction, perhaps we can right humanity’s ship. We may disagree, fight and even go to war with one another, but all 7-plus billion of us are riding around the solar system on the same planet.
Humanity’s patience is thin right now, but a little introspective thought might do us all some good. We can continue raising our temperatures to the boiling point, but in the end, we help no one, ourselves included. Love him or hate him, John Lennon’s words of wisdom ring true today, and when times are tough, I often wonder what he would say if he were still alive.
Would Lennon march along with the protesters over the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases? Almost certainly. Would Lennon protest the never-ending conflict in the Middle East? He protested Vietnam, so why not Iraq and Afghanistan? Would Lennon ask us to find another, more peaceful way to interact with each other and the world at large? I sure hope so.
It’s easy to idealize Lennon and his beliefs, but each and every Dec. 8, I consider what the world lost on that day in 1980, and I long for Lennon’s words and songs of wisdom. We may never achieve Lennon’s naive vision of “Imagine,” but we can all work a little harder to make the world a better place.
It may sound ridiculous, but if we don’t stand up, do the right thing and attempt to change the attitudes of those around us, we’ll fail to live up to Lennon’s idealized future and doom future generations. Start small in 2015 with an act of kindness and maybe, just maybe, it will lead others to do the same.
Happy holidays to all and may the new year bring us more opportunity, happiness and peace than 2014.
Joel Mendelson is a UF graduate student in political campaigning. His columns appear on Wednesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 12/10/2014]
