Mood: Monday

Previously posted here was a photo of the lithograph Honeymoon, 1969, by John Lennon.

Today is the anniversary of John Lennon’s birth in 1940.

Last week sometime, I was looking at a photo of Lennon and Yoko Ono on Instagram, and clicked on the comments to see if they were as usual. Yes, they were, falling generally into these categories: his time with the Beatles, the Beatles breakup and who was to blame, discussion of his music pro and con, the tendency to put him on or knock him off a pedestal, and judgments of his private life and behavior to encompass both wives and both sons as well as his bandmates. This must always include about ninety percent negativity toward Yoko Ono.

Around sixty years later and the narrative hasn’t changed. Nor has mine: lives are complex, art is subjective, most of us never personally knew Lennon or any Beatle or any Beatle wives, girlfriends, and children, and even accounts of their lives from people who did/do know them are offered through each person’s perspective and the motive for which and spirit in which that perspective is offered.

So nothing new there, but what did strike me for perhaps the first time is how for the past few years we’ve watched a similar story unfold with many of the same features: high profile man from a prominent group/family has a relationship with high profile woman; she comes from a different place and looks different from him; she is vilified by many and defended by some; the two seek to carve out a new life somewhere else, giving up some things but still trying to be true to the beliefs and interests that guide and motivate them; all discussed by an even more amplified cacophony of voices thanks to social media and its immediacy. And I’ll say again: WE DON’T KNOW THESE PEOPLE PERSONALLY and our opinions about their “story” have very little to do with the reality of their lives and a lot more to do with our own biases, experiences, and wishes.

This frenzy of attention and amount of misinformation and disinformation and the force that drives it sometimes has tragic consequences and makes me wish that as a species and a culture, we would dial it back and focus our energy on better managing our own lives, families, and careers while they go on with theirs. You don’t like the image or product or point of view they’re serving? Don’t buy it. No reason to replace the dish you’re refusing with heaping sides of hatred toward them or the people who are interested and supportive of them.