All You Need Is Love?

My son Dax has been hit by Beatlemania this month. We have been listening to Beatles tunes, watching documentaries and some of their early movies like Hard Day's Night.

This has been easy for me to do first, because I love doing things with my son, and second, I really like The Beatles.

Timing couldn't be better as American Idol was able to perform the Beatles' songbook this year, and rumors abound that for the first time The Beatles' music will be available on iTunes sometime in 2008.

It just so happens that Paul and Ringo (the only two living "Fabs") were on Larry King Live this weekend (along with Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's wife Olivia) to talk about the Cirque du Soleil production fusing The Beatles' music into a Las Vegas Show.

One theme came out of the recent rush of Beatlemania in our home, The Beatles primarily sang about love, hope, and peace. Virtues we all believe in and can rally around.

I thought it interesting that the one's who told us "All We Need Is Love" have all been married more than once. Furthermore, John Lennon never really spent much time with his first son Julian, to the point that he told Playboy in 1980 "Sean [His son with Yoko Ono] was a planned child, and therein lies the difference. I don't love Julian any less as a child. He's still my son, whether he came from a bottle of whiskey or because they didn't have pills in those days. He's here, he belongs to me, and he always will.

Wow ... what a great thing to hear from your dad! (sense my sarcasm) Even when Julian was in his teens his father still hadn't connected with him. Julian has said there are more pictures of him with Paul McCartney than his own dad.

All You Need Is Love eh?

While they may have had struggles living up to their ideals, The Beatles ARE right, love is all we need. And artists and dreamers often speak of how things could be , should be. I'm pretty sure Jesus said the same thing when he shared the two Great Commandments (Mark 12:29-31), and the apostle paul wrote about this too to the church at Corinth (1 Cor 13). But Jesus delivered love in a way artist's and dreamers cannot. He died for us.

I think of Ecclesiastes, a book in scripture that basically says, apart from God, we are really nothing.

The artists and dreamers help us see life as it should be, but they can't deliver it themselves. Jesus does not only see life as it could be, but also as it is, and he offers a path to make the dream a reality. Indeed, all we need is love, but one must consider the source of love. I'll take mine from Christ, his love is everlasting and it is powerful enough to allow you and I the kind of love singers and poets speak of.

Mark