Music is a powerful communicator and musicians have a beautiful way of connecting their message with the audience. There are thousands and millions of melodies that speak without lyrics… Still, I like words. I like musicians who are good story tellers. And I like the ones who use their voice and art for something good.

Sometimes I hear a word and immediately think of a song. Hearing about zombies, makes me think of ‘The Cranberries’. Even though their hit song has nothing to do with zombies, but speaks about violence in our hearts and communities. The official video highlighted the conflict and pain in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It is one of the popular cover songs all around the world but how many people actually pay attention to the deep message inside?!

For me, ‘U2’ is in a category of its own. Often Bono is described as part preacher, part politician, part social activist and musician. And when he hangs out with another Irish musician, Bob Geldof, watch out… the Irish can be very passionate and persuasive.

All this came to my mind when I was watching the movie “The Killing Fields” about Cambodia and the soundtrack included John Lennon’s “Imagine”… People call it the ‘peace song’ but I realized that I actually disagree with his imagined version of peace. John Lennon said:

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

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 be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

So, basically if we got rid of religion, national borders and all possessions, we would become united and loving and selfless. Lennon said that he was not only one with this point of view and he was right… many people feel that way. But their dream has a major flaw – what about the question of human heart? Yes, violence and selfishness and greed can be taught, exemplified and encouraged, but even without any of that – it comes naturally to all of us.

Christians call it the problem of ‘sin’ or missing God’s ideal; Buddhists call it the problem of ‘suffering’ which comes from our desires; Muslims call it the problem of disobedience if people are not submitted to God…

I don’t know of John Lennon’s worldview but it reminds me in some ways of the Marxist ideals. I grew up in a society where we told that all problems come from religion, nationalism and capitalism. So, telling your children about God was forbidden; being Latvian or Armenian was discouraged because we would create a new international person and things were owned by the state. And that was a ‘dream’ that most of us were very happy to wake up from.

I choose to join another dream. Desmond Tutu put it like this: “Extraordinarily, God the omnipotent One depends on us, puny, fragile, and vulnerable as we may be, to accomplish God’s purposes for good, for justice, for forgiveness and healing and wholeness. God has no one but us.”