Strawberry Fields

Maybe it's not forever but it does feel sort of eternal somehow. The memorial to John Lennon in Central Park is simple, elegant and understated, perhaps like John Lennon himself, though I don't really know that for sure, the Beatles were sort of out of my sphere of focus musically. I, of course, know a majority of their major songs by heart, as I know iconic nursery rhymes by heart...Beatles songs having woven themselves into the fabric of our existence.

But as for John himself, I know of him, his aesthetic appearance, Yoko and the supposed reason that he left the Beatles to watch the shadows on the wall. And I know about Mark David Chapman and the day that he shot John in the back outside of The Dakota apartments in New York.

As for Strawberry Fields, Yoko endowed New York with over a million dollars to create the small triangular section of Central Park as a memorial for John, named of course for the song John wrote as a tribute to the Strawberry Field Children's home that the Salvation Army ran in Liverpool near where John grew up. It was there, in the fields behind the home that John would listen to the Salvation Army band and become inspired to become a musician.

the center piece of the memorial is the mosaic circle with the word "Imagin" in the center. It is simple and moving in it's own way. I spent awhile just sitting in one of the benches surrounding the mosaic and watching how people interacted with it. Most avoided walking on the mosaic at all, unless it was to kneel on it to pose for a picture.

Occasionally someone would just walk directly across the mosaic, seemingly oblivious to any significance that it might have. This struck me as being somehow disrespectful and part of me wanted to get up and tell these people to walk around the circle, to pay attention to where they stepped, which got me to thinking about respect in general and why and how it is given.

After all this mosaic was really just a collection of nicely shaped stones, arranged in a discernible pattern on the ground. Were the spot not marked as a special location, would any of us even know that some sort of deference should be given to this spot above any other spot? It is not as though John Lennon is actually buried there, he wasn't even shot and killed there, nor was he born there. Essentially he lived across the street...so why does it matter where we step?

It seems to come down to the fact that I knew that the spot had significance, and that I was aware of what that significance was and because of that awareness, I chose to offer that spot some respect. I have no control over whether others choose to embrue that spot with significance or whether they choose to pay the spot respect or not, which, in a way, is exactly what Lennon was probably trying to say when he wrote "Imagin" in the first place.

"Imagin there no heaven...above us only sky. "

I don't think John would care if someone walked on his memorial, but he would like that we were all there enjoying the spot together, in whatever way we chose.

Starting My New York Minute

It really doesn't matter what time you arrive, New York is always alive and happening. Our plane didn't land at JFK until nearly 11, so, after fetching bags and lining up a town car who then flew us along the Van Wyke through Queens until we approached the Queensborogh Bridge where we started getting our first views of the city...and I started getting that lump in my throat...that New York lump.

Ok, I admit it, I am a rube when it comes to New York. This is only my second visit (the first being two years ago for the marathon) and it was in that first visit that I became intoxicated by the place, and intoxication that has carried me over to today. This is THE place.

This is THE CITY. This is New York.

Right now K is pulling up various NY songs, especially Alicia Keyes brilliant and haunting Empire State of Mind and I am getting chills.