All You Need

September 11, 2001.  About 8:15 a.m.  I pulled into the parking lot of Vanguard Property Group for a meeting.  On the radio, my favorite oldies station was playing “All You Need Is Love.” 

For some reason, the meaning of that song struck me that morning more than it ever had before. I remember thinking as I got out of car that maybe John Lennon had gotten a bum rap.   

Maybe John Lennon was a prophet after all.   

                                                            Then I went to the meeting.

September 11, 2001.  8:46:30 (we now know), my meeting was interrupted by the news that the first…and then the second…tower of the World Trade Center had been struck.  Along with every other life that day, my life changed forever.

Fast forward to August 5, 2012.  My favorite oldies station was playing a tribute to the Beatles, including some rare cuts and interviews.  In one, John Lennon discussed a satellite broadcast on June 27, 1967 (the “Summer of Love”).  Knowing the Beatles would be heard and seen by the whole world at the same time, they chose one message: “All You Need Is Love.”  A song which John Lennon, in that interview, referred to as: “A subtle bit of PR for God.”

I will always remember what I was doing and what I was thinking that morning of September 11, 2001.  And I will always remember the last song I heard on the radio that day.

Maybe John Lennon was a prophet.  Maybe not. 

Maybe the message really is that simple.

Maybe we just keep getting it wrong.