Imagine

The Goal Is Peace

One of my favourite singers is Eva Cassidy. She died as a locally known club singer in Washington D.C. at the early age of thirty-three and went on to sell posthumously multiple millions of records—all due to a friend sending a tape of a couple of her songs to a British radio show which aired her versions of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and ‘Fields of Gold.’ Like a rocket blasting off into orbit, people clamoured to hear her passionate and pure voice.

One of Cassidy’s early recordings was the John Lennon song ‘Imagine,’ which includes the prescient lyrics:

Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man (humanity), Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world.”

You may say that 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.

Cassidy and Lennon remind us that the world’s steady state practice of violence, war, and hatred is actually the opposite of what our hearts truly desire. To this end a prophetic voice from a previous generation reminds us of the true way forward:

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)

A trinity of helpful voices—Cassidy, Lennon, and King—a message more powerful than dictators, war lords, and political hacks. Together they ask us to reflect upon two important questions: “Whose message are we listening to?” and “Whose interests are we representing?”