Next Time

John Lennon once did a concert in New York City to raise money for John Sinclair. At one point he stops singing, pans the crowd and says, “Listen. Apathy isn’t it! We can do something. Flower Power didn’t work. So what? We start again.”

Ah, Flower Power … the belief that love conquers all … love trumps hate …people in love always stay together … the just always prevail … good things come to those who wait … flowers are more powerful weapons than guns.

“Bullshit!” is what George Carlin says in response. “Bullshit is what holds this country together. We believe this stuff anyway though we know ... its bullshit!”

But, John Lennon is wiser in the end. He preempts the response with “So what? We start again.”

You gotta love John.

All around me are people picking up the pieces of their broken dreams and relationships. They find themselves suddenly single or in relationships that are nothing but co-habitation because both are afraid to make the first move.

Or … the one you love most simply died and you don’t know what to do so you lose the ability to do much anything.

Or anger becomes the defining characteristic of living in the same house so you spend all of your energy figuring out ways to let it out … as though it’s a heat seeking missile aimed directly at the head lying on the pillow next to yours.

Jobs have ended, careers been packed away, or burnout has overtaken productivity. We show up uninspired with the monotony of the work or are overwhelmed by the incompetence of the person telling us what we do wrong every day. What we do becomes time we just get through.

Homes are lost, oak trees smash into living rooms, you miss the rent one time too many, or the Power Company opts to throw you into the category of requiring assistance of the extra dollar they ask everybody to contribute to those whose electricity is going to be cut off for non-payment (Because they aren’t going to spend any of their own money to keep us out of the dark).

Yet … these things happen every day.

We end in the dark anyway.

We sit on porches or decks or concrete stoops late into the night pondering what to do only to find ourselves locked out … of the lives we believed would be ours.

Then one of two things happen ...

We grow cynical and say its bullshit anyway. There’s no such thing as one pure love. We work to put a shirt on our back … to provide for our family … to have money to forget why we’re working. We become so enamored with everything that has gone wrong it becomes this weight we wear on our faces and shoulders so we stumble through life instead of … dancing.

Then there are others who say … so what? We start again.

I sit here knowing I still believe in Flower Power with everything in me. I’m starting again!

I wish I wasn’t starting so many new things at the same time, but starting again is starting again.

What do you do?

In spite of the failed loves or the number of people I’ve slept with looking for it … there is this one so pure and true … that it overwhelms … baptizing me in joy …where anybody who knows me can’t help but say, “Christ! That’s one happy Dude.”

The new work exceeds the joys of the old work so that you can’t wait to get back to it.

Old houses become new homes full of peaceful celebration, rest and sanctuary and the knowledge that you know you’re returning to it when you leave gives you confidence in whatever you’re leaving for.

I know.

A lot of people think such beliefs are bullshit and I’m the first to admit that I lived through my fair share of it.

But … I’m starting again.

And to quote John Lennon again, after he butchered “Instant Karma” at Madison Square Garden one night. “We’ll get it right next time.”

I believe in next time.