FILE - John Lennon speaks as he arrived for a hearing on his case at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in the lower Manhattan section of New York, May 12, 1972. Like so many other events in the year of coronavirus, an annual tribute to John Lennon held in its adopted city of New York will go online. The five-hour event will be streamed for free on Lennon's birthday, October 9, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time on the LennonTribute.org website. It will feature recorded performances from Patti Smith, Rosanne Cash, Natalie Merchant, Jackson Browne, Jorma Kaukonen and others. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)

For me, and millions of other people who loved the music and philosophy of John Lennon, it’s still nearly impossible to believe that four decades have come and gone since his passing. There are those watershed moments in life that live forever. They are the frozen pauses that can never be dimmed or erased by the passing of time. Losing John Lennon was one of those freeze frame moments.

As I write this, I’m being swamped under a tsunami of long-ago images of the former Beatles leader. So much so that it is difficult to find the right words to capture my feelings about him. So many are racing through my mind in a crowded rush. Perhaps a lyric from “Across the Universe,” a beautiful song that remains one of my favorites from him, captures a tiny bit of what I’m feeling as I sit here at the keyboard thinking about him. “Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup; they slither wildly as they slip away across the universe.”

On December 8, 1980, after winding up a late-night recording session, Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, were returning home to the Dakota, the luxurious Victorian apartment building that stands across the street from Central Park. As he made his way through a throng of fans on the sidewalk and walked towards the lobby of the Dakota, a young man, Mark David Chapman, emerged and called out, “Mr. Lennon.” As he stopped and started to turn towards the sound of the caller, Chapman raised a pistol and shot John Lennon in the back six times at point blank range. In that horrible moment, a light went out across the globe, sending the world into a collective state of shock, disbelief and sadness.

As the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963, remains an indelible memory for an earlier generation, December 8, 1980 gripped another group with that same devastating impact. What binds people from both generations together is found in the fact that those from both still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they got the tragic news. These events are both etched in eternity. Like Kennedy, in an instant, Lennon was gone. Although he was not a political leader, for some people he’s still here and always will be. For in their collective mind, he comes alive again every time they listen to one of his songs, be it with the Beatles or from his catalogue as a solo artist.

Again, for me, what still makes the death of Lennon a bit impossible to wrap my mind around, and to comprehend, is that his murder was so senseless. The haunting question of “why” still hangs over millions of people from across different generations like a deep black cloud. This brilliant singer-songwriter, who formed the greatest rock band the world has ever known was, in my mind, the most prominent and iconic anti-war and pro-peace activist of his tumultuous times. After all these years, I still find myself asking the question, why do these things happen?

Lennon was only on this Earth for 40 short years, but in that brief time, he managed to make the most of it. Using his celebrity status as a bully pulpit during the last years of his life, this prolific songwriter and rock superstar churned out an amazing cache of creative work that resonated deeply with people. So many of his songs inspired them to embrace love over hate and peace over war. Looking back at him now, so many years after he left this world, it is clear that people embraced him not only for his wealth of talent, but also because they saw in him a deep conviction, social conscience, and his willingness to throw himself into worthy causes that he saw as being far more important than the enrichment of his own ego. Maybe one fitting epitaph for him can be found in his own timeless words, “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” When I think of Lennon’s message to the world in that song, and his life and death, I’m struck by the irony in the sobering fact that so many of the world’s most celebrated peace advocates ,such as John and Robert Kennedy, Anwar Sadat, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi, all had their lives come to a violent end.

To this day, I still see his song “Imagine” as being a beautiful and timeless anthem for a better and more peaceful world. Today, four decades after he wrote it, “Imagine” is still as relevant and viable as it was when it was released in 1971. It is evergreen. John Lennon’s was, and always will be, an inspirational and iconic stalwart in the music world. The sands of time cannot cover over his creative genius. Forty years after his untimely death, he remains irreplaceable. John Lennon is gone, but his spirit and his dream of a world that amplifies peace, love, tranquility and harmony lives on in the legacy of his timeless words; “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.”

Paul Collins is a freelance writer from Southborough, Massachusetts.

Newsletter