[EN] No comment / [RO] Fără comentarii (37) – A quote on happiness / Un citat despre fericire

[EN] The meaning of life lies not in hedonism, going shopping, political utopias, nor in intellectual or material wealth – irrespective of how many think otherwise. [RO] Sensul vieţii nu stă în hedonism, mersul la cumpărături, utopii politice, nici în bogăţie intelectuală sau materială – indiferent câţi ori gândi contrar.

[EN] Even the child John Lennon seemed to share such healthy outlook on life – he knew what truly matters. [RO] Până şi copilul John Lennon părea să împărtăşească o astfel de perspectivă sănătoasă asupra vieţii – ştia ce contează cu adevărat.

[EN] I may not be a fan of The Beatles, nor find Lennon to be a model, but I admire any words of wit of his: [RO] N-oi fi fan eu al The Beatles, nici nu l-oi găsi pe Lennon a fi un model, dar admir orice vorbe de duh ale sale:

[EN] “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. [RO] “Când aveam 5 ani, mama îmi spunea mereu că fericirea este cheia vieţii.

[EN] When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. [RO] Când m-am dus la şcoală, m-au întrebat ce voiam să mă fac când cresc mare.

[EN] I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me that I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” [RO] Am scris ‘fericit’. Ei mi-au spus că nu am înţeles cerinţa, iar eu le-am spus că ei nu înţeleg viaţa”.

[EN] It’s so sad that people like Lennon and countless others haven’t ever found out what happiness is and where it can be found… [RO] Este atât de trist că oameni precum Lennon şi nenumăraţi alţii nu au aflat vreodată ce este fericirea şi nici unde poate fi găsită...

[EN] Sadder still, very few are even those baptised in the name of the Holy Trinity who find the answer before death. [RO] Mai trist, foarte puţini sunt chiar cei botezaţi în numele Sfintei Treimi care găsesc răspunsul înainte de moarte.

[EN] When people realize it, it’s too late to do anything about attaining genuine happiness, in Risen Christ. [RO] Când oamenii îşi dau seama de aceasta, este prea târziu să mai facă ceva pentru atinge fericirea veritabilă, în Hristos Cel Înviat.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

John Lennon and the overpopulation myth [John Lennon şi mitul suprapopulării]

It happens that, in spite of seeing myself as having broad tastes in music (here are just a few examples), I don’t like The Beatles. And by no means because of religious or ideological reasons, although I could agree with many such reasons.

Their music is (and has never been) simply not appealing enough to me, and I don’t think I ever more or less liked another song apart from Yesterday, nor tolerated other songs than Yellow Submarine.

On the other hand though, my dislike of their music could make me deny the evidence that – whether I like it or not, whether they were a good or rather catastrophic model – The Beatles are an iconic brand of post-WWII Britain.

All in all, irrespective of my opinion of the band and, thanks to a friend of mine, I could listen to this very wise opinion of John Lennon about the myth of overpopulation. No matter how immoral he or anti-Christian (although that’s not so sure!) he was, he was certainly no stupid guy.

Whether you choose to click to see the short recording or not, I am reproducing a short dialogue from a TV show, occuring after a woman in the public had a question for Yoko Ono, Lennon’s Japanese wife.

“I wanna know how you, as a woman, feel about overpopulation in the world and it’s relation to polutting the environment”, a dark-haired woman in her early twenties asks.

Yoko Ono: “I think the problem is not overpopulation, as people believe to be, but it’s more of the balance of things. In some parts of the world there’s wasted food, in some parts nobody has food. If that kind of balance is solved, I don’t think we’d be worried so much about overpopulation”.

She answered just like I would have answered, didn’t she? And it’s amazing how her husband subsequently says the same thing; and there was no time for the spouses to ‘rehearse’ their answers!

John Lennon: “I think it’s a bit of a joke the way people have made this overpopulation thing into a kind of myth. I don’t really believe it, you know… I think whatever happens, will balance itself out, will work itself out.

It’s alright for us living ones to say «Well, it’s enough us, so we won’t have any more. Don’t let anybody else live.» I don’t believe in that.

I think we have enough food if we wanted to feed everybody. The natural balance, even though old people will last longer, will show that there’s enough room for us, and some of us can go to the Moon…

I don’t believe overpopulation. I think it’s just a myth that government is throwing out to keep your mind off Vietnam and (Northern – my note) Ireland, and all the important subjects.”

This is Lennon’s blunt opinion, to which someone from the audience (a man this time) says: “Oh, I think you’re wrong about that”. “Oh, I don’t care”, Lennon swiftly replies.

Let us wonder what Lennon would have said today about another myth – anthropogenic global warming! It’s very likely that he wouldn’t have belived this crap either, because, no matter what their shortcomings were, these rock ‘n roll characters always had a “take no shit” attitude.

I guess he would have said a lot to say about the connections often made between the overpopulation myth and the anthropogenic global warming myth. And so would have done Mahatma Gandhi, another one who misunderstood Christianity.

The father of modern India once said that “The earth has enough for man's need but not for man’s greed”, and I am afraid that I often have to agree with him on another quote: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I don’t want to legitimate any other of Lennon’s or Gandhi’s ideas, as long as, according to my view, they missed the chance of knowing the Truth. But I wanted to highlight that both pop idols of yore, as well as famous thinkers, were at least intelligent.

A quality which could be hardly found among the ‘stars’ of MTV generations or among the wise people who keep chewing and throwing up in our faces the same ideological bullshit. Today’s fashinonable thinkers simply do not ‘think’, do they?

[For all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]