Author: Jude Southerland Kessler

Give Peace a Chance

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Have you ever really thought about what that means? Ever let it sink it? Why did John Lennon think he needed to urge us to give peace a try, a sample, a chance? Could it be that he was convincing us to consider peace because he knew that we are non-peaceful at heart?
 
During the Age of Enlightenment (the 18th Century), great thinkers called philosophes spent a great deal of serious time and thought trying to determine whether man was inherently evil or inherently good. In France, René Rousseau wrote an essay asserting that man is born good, but is almost immediately corrupted by the world around him. In England, John Locke wrote an opposing essay asserting that man is born evil (the church calls it “original sin”) but is rescued by laws and by society’s uplifting ethics.
 
There was no “winner” in this contest of ideas. Some people favored Rousseau. Some favored Locke.
 
I hold with Locke. I believe that a young child will lie, if given the chance…that he will say cruel things to another child…that he will put himself or herself before anyone else. I think that only parents, teachers, mentors, and extended family can teach that child to be selfless… can convince that child to be kind, tactful, giving, and loving. Many of you will disagree with me. That’s to be expected. People have been arguing this point since the 1700’s without resolution.
 
Like John Lennon, I believe that we have to learn to give peace a chance.
 
This past week, the world has revolved in utter chaos. Twelve people were murdered in a Parisian newspaper office for speaking their minds. Hostages were taken by the assailants and murdered. Terror was on our lips. Violence, hatred, and suspicion reigned supreme.
 
In his famous chants about the divisiveness of “isms” in his song, “Give Peace A Chance,” John seemed to know that peace has little hope in our society. Early on, we take sides. But like that radical young man, Jesus of Nazareth, John urged us to turn the other cheek and to be a neighbor to people unlike ourselves. He reminded us (in “Instant Karma”) that if we fail to do this, “Instant karma is going to get you…gonna knock you right in the head!” Okay, John, we hear you.
 
But giving peace a chance!? Can that ever really happen? I’m very, very, very skeptical. However, despite all the evidence of its impracticality, I still believe that seeking peace is our ultimate goal.
 
However, giving peace a chance doesn’t mean blindly trusting everyone. Some people are untrustworthy, and we’d be stupid to toss our pearls before them. Giving peace a chance doesn’t mean being naïve or foolish.  Giving peace a chance doesn’t mean forgetting the wisdom learned from the past. And certainly, giving peace a chance doesn’t mean buckling under to bullies. What it does mean is that we should act daily as if “We Are Unafraid” to bring good into the world, no matter what.
 
In so many of his songs (even “Happy Christmas, War is Over”), John reminded us that we are all called to do good things, great things. And if we are called, we must try.
 
I’m willing to give peace a chance. How about you?
 
Jude Southerland Kessler
 
http://www.johnlennonseries.com
 
To hear the songs in this blog:
 
Give Peace a Chance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkZC7sqImaM
 
Instant Karma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEjUQ15lyzk&feature=youtu.be
 
Happy Christmas, War is Over  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Vfp48laS8

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“Living with Eyes Closed?”

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“Living with Eyes Closed?”

“Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see,
It’s getting hard to be someone
But it all works out.
It doesn’t matter much to me…”

John Winston Lennon

“Strawberry Fields”

 
My sister refuses to watch the news. “I just don’t want to know about it,” she tells me. And on one level, she’s SO right: Life is to be enjoyed! (And yeah, I know… the news is never good.)
 
Our own John Lennon voiced a similar opinion. “Living is easy with eyes closed,” he sang. And he was right. Life’s so much smoother if you don’t know the details.
 
But wait!! Was John advocating living that way, or was he pointing out (in typical Lennon satire) how very wrong that kind of attitude is? Wasn’t John asking us to examine our actions just the way he always did in “Instant Karma” or “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” or even in “Revolution”?
 
I think what John was pointing out is that “living with eyes closed” is NOT what we’re called to do. It’s not how we’re called to live.
 
The answer to, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is still a resounding “Yes!”? And especially in this season, we’re reminded that we’re inexorably linked to the poor, the war-torn, the abused and neglected, and the lonely. (“Ah, look at all the lonely people!” Paul penned.)
 
Watching hours and hours of current events and televised news may not be the happiest habit. And certainly watching it without putting any lifestyle changes into action is fruitless and empty.
 
But maybe this year, we can OPEN our eyes, take a good look at the world around us, and then do something.
 
Maybe right now, at this moment, we can decide to make 2015 the year in which we:
 
Volunteer at a shelter
 
Write a letter to a congressman
 
Give (a little or a lot) to a good cause
 
Contribute a song or quote or photo to the Fest Facebook page or the Moments group to lift someone’s spirits
 
Tweet something important
 
Champion a cause
 
Plant a neighborhood garden
 
Tutor a child
 
Drive someone to work or to the grocery store
 
Clean up the neighborhood
 
Forgive an old wound
 
Cook for a neighbor who works long hours or who is elderly
 
Rake someone’s leaves
 
Call someone who is lonely and chat
 
Buy a ticket to The Fest for someone and give it to them anonymously! (It’ll be the best time they’ve ever had!)
 
Knit a scarf for someone who works in the cold
 
Take in a rescue dog or cat
 
Encourage someone to make his or her dream come true
 
Stand up for what you believe in
 
Give sincere compliments…(you know, the things you think but never have the courage to say)
 
Withhold judgments
 
Build faith
 
Try to smile more and gripe less
 
It’s 2015, people! This year, let’s take a peek. Let’s open our eyes. Let’s understand what we see, and then do something about it! Let’s make the world less “a lonely branch” and more a “Strawberry Field.”
 
What say you?
 
Jude Southerland Kessler
 
http: //johnlennonseries.com

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Get You to the Light

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How can both overhead lights in my kitchen burn out at the same time? Las Vegas odds, and yet this morning, my workspace (the place where I wrap and box up my John Lennon Series books for mailing) was completely dark.
 
At first, I was aggravated. And yeah, a little depressed.
 
You see, I have SAD syndrome (Sensory Affective Disorder) and so the first thing I do each morning is turn on every single light in the rooms where I’m gonna be hanging out. It’s so illuminated around here that my sister once acridly observed, “Oh I get it. You want your house to look just like the lobby of Homewood Suites.”
 
Yep, that’s about right.
 
But this morning, as I stood in the dim haze of my inconveniently dull workspace, it hit me. I was being given a gift…my blog theme for The Fest for Beatles Fans! I stood there quietly, and I mulled.
 
This is what I heard:
 
December is all about The Light. Hanukkah is The Miracle of the Lights…the inexplicable phenomenon of light continuing to pierce the darkness when every scientific fact dictated that the darkness should’ve prevailed. Hanukkah is the triumph of the Unknown over Known. Hanukkah is the victory of Light over darkness.
 
And Christmas is the birth of that Light. As the writer John phrased it so long ago: “That Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
 
Another writer named John – a handsome, young man from Liverpool, England – wrote about the Light as well. He said, “Whatever gets you to the Light, is all right, all right!” And hey guys…he wasn’t talking about G. E. replacement bulbs, and we all know it.
 
He was addressing the miracle of that which pushes away the murky existence that lingers where all hope is lost.
 
December houses the shortest day of the year – the 21st of December – the day of least light shed on humans in all 365. At this time of year, many, many people struggle with depression as they try to ward off the scientific effects of a shadowy world.
 
But John Lennon, cavortin’ on stage with Elton John (another John!) in a concert that ultimately changed his fate forever, shouted in his rocker’s voice for us to seek the light, to “make it through the night,” to keep looking for ways to overcome the darkness.
 
Any other pursuit, he told us, was a waste of time. (“Don’t need a watch to waste your time,” he belted out, tongue in cheek. And John Lennon meant it. He knew about limited mortality (see his song, “Borrowed Time”). He knew about years well spent. John urged us to spend each day wisely.
 
Look…you can attach many meanings to this month…you can make it all about baking or shopping or creating décor or partying or traveling or inviting friends into your home. You can make it about clothes or trees or garlands or Frosty the Snowman. But the essence of the holidays is The Light.
 
The Maccabees on that gloomy hilltop knew it. John, that long-ago writer of the Book of John, knew it. And John the latter – our very own John Lennon – knew it. His final days were spent purchasing scores of books about spirituality, seeking out sages and religious leaders to ask questions, and spending hours of serious contemplation about life’s meaning.
 
He was seeking the Light. And it was, in fact, “all right, all right.”
 
With that in mind, I’m off to find replacement bulbs. All other tasks this morning can wait. “Bet my money and my life”…I can do this. December, the Maccabees, and John have set me on a mission. I’m off to seek the Light.
 
Click here to listen to John’s song…
 
Jude Southerland Kessler is the Author of The John Lennon Series
 
http://www.johnlennonseries.com
 
Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler
 
Follow Jude on Facebook here

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Moments: With A Little Help From Our Friends

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“Why in the world are we here?
Surely not to live in pain and fear…”
-John Lennon
 
But sometimes, it feels that way, doesn’t it?
 
Sometimes you have a horrid day…
followed by a worse one…
and then, an even darker one than that.
Sometimes, your cup runneth over, but not with joy – with sorrow.
 
John Lennon felt that loneliness and isolation, too. In fact, in Strawberry Fields Forever, he cried out, “NO ONE, I think, is in my tree. I mean, it must be high or low.” Many times, he felt alone…out on a limb, cut off from human understanding. We all do.
 

 
That is when we reach for a MOMENT.
 
Moments come in myriad sizes. They can be as small as a freshly-brewed cup of coffee, a hot shower, a single crimson leaf tumbling along the sidewalk, or a quick smile from someone at work. Or a moment can stand tall and significant: an afternoon shared with your child or a kind email or precious card from someone who has taken the time to think of you and let you know.
 
The best moments are unanticipated…hearing a favorite Beatles song on the radio. Or finding a crumpled $10 bill in your jeans pocket. Having a stranger randomly treat you to Starbucks.
 
But hey, there is nothing wrong with moments that are planned! You can, in fact, begin to inject moments purposely into your day. Plan to get a pedicure or listen to Rubber Soul or Live at the BBC. Plan to curl up with a good book (Shoulda Been There might be nice!). Plan to cut fresh evergreens or pansies to place on your bedside table. Plan to eat a STRAWBERRY or a tangerine. Plan to do something that makes you happy.
 
Planning one special moment for yourself in the day ahead gives you a chance to anticipate “the happy.” If you know that at 3 p.m. you’re going to take a 10-minute break to walk outside or to sip a cup of cocoa or read a few pages in Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In, then all day long, you can look forward to that moment with hope. No matter what else happens, you can move toward that bit of joy with the assurance that at least one good thing is going to occur.
 
I’m a runner, and sometimes, when the run is particularly difficult, I push myself from focal point to focal point, not trying to mentally accomplish the “whole run,” but refusing to quit by saying, “I’ll make it as far as the next mailbox” and then, “Okay, now I’ll make it as far as the next street sign.” Using that technique, I trick myself into enduring the whole four miles; I complete the run bit by bit, moment by moment.
 
THAT is the thought process behind a new Facebook page called “MOMENTS.”
 
It is a page filled with inspiring quotes, lovely photos, good videos, a couple of jokes, some uplifting songs, and an entire potpourri of thoughts to help us endure the race. It’s a collection of thoughts that keep us running, even when we feel like giving up.
 
I invite you to join the Moments page on Facebook and enjoy it. It’s a page for Beatles fans…although we want anyone to enjoy it. It’s a place where those of us who have connected via John, Paul, George, and Ringo can contribute a thought or two. We can post happy songs or inspiring songs like Across the Universe. We can post quotes or videos.
 
Go to the page when you need a smile. Go to the Moments page when you want to give one away.
 
I’ll be there, offering you a moment or two when you need one. And when I need a moment, I’ll run there as well, hoping you’ve left one there for me.
 
Moment by moment, we’ll get by. It happens, of course, with a little help from our friends.
 
Jude Southerland Kessler is the Author of The John Lennon Series
 
http://www.johnlennonseries.com
 
Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler
 
Follow Jude on Facebook here

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Billy J. Kramer will always sound like summer

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To me, Billy J. Kramer will always sound like summer.
 
I first heard “Bad to Me” as we trekked back from City Pool to Bringhurst Park where Camp Denim Deb for Preteens was in full swing. It was deep summer in Alexandria, Louisiana – June bug and Popsicle days. And I was almost 11, or “one teen,” as I insisted on calling it. And it was in that “almost-one-teen summer” that I began noticing boys and dreaming of falling in love.

“The birds in the sky would be sad and lonely

If they knew that I’d lost my one and only…

They’d be sad! Don’t be bad to me!”

 
The words poured from our camp counselor, Joanne Wooten’s, transistor radio.  Walking single file through sun and shadow – our flip flops wet-smacking the sidewalk – my friends and I sang along…allowing ourselves to fall for the tune and the words and the way they made us feel, even though the hit wasn’t (or so we thought) by The Beatles.
 
The Beatles! They were my world. Well, John Lennon was my world. And had I known that he’d composed “Bad to Me” during his May 1963 trip with Brian Epstein to the Costa Brava and the Costa Del Sol, I would have flipped over it. Head over heels! But instead, I fell for the song gradually, mesmerized by the image of “softly sighing” leaves and the gentle sound of Billy J. Kramer’s voice.
 
Slender, brunette Joanne Wooton wore aqua contact lenses and tailored Capri pants. And as a teenager (almost an adult!), she was beyond cool. So when she informed us all that Billy J. Kramer was from Liverpool, too, and that he was blond, broad-shouldered, and handsome, we swooned. The Denim Debs had never seen Billy’s face, but listening to him plead, “Don’t be bad to me,” we were hooked.
 
It wasn’t until forty years later that I actually met Billy, face-to-face, at the Las Vegas Fest for Beatles Fans. Gathering all of my courage, I strolled over to him and said, “Billy, I want you to know that ‘I Go To Pieces’ meant the world to me growing up. In fact, I loved it so much that I sang it as a lullabye to my son each evening when he was a baby.”
 
Billy, who could have easily retorted, “Uhhhh, that’s not my song, you twit!” smiled a kind smile and tenderly replied, “Ah, that’s so nice. I’ll be sure to tell Peter Asher next time I see him.”
 
It took me ten minutes to figure out that I had named the wrong song. And ten months to get up the courage to speak to Billy again!
 
But since then, we’ve become good friends – me and this tall, sandy-blond NEMS star who wooed me away from John, if only for one small segment of summer. He and his wife have become one of the couples I most look forward to seeing each time we Fest for Beatles Fans-ers convene in New York or Chicago.
 
But this past Fest, as I sat in the Saturday night concert audience with my grown son, Cliff, and heard Billy J. sing the song I had REALLY crooned to my baby as a lullabye, “Bad To Me,” I was overcome with emotion.
 
Suddenly, it wasn’t 2014. It was 1964. And I was flip-flopping back to Bringhurst Park to braid a keychain made from rubber strands of brightly-coloured, waxy ribbon. I was singing along with the other Denim Debs and talking about the futility of attempting a cartwheel on the thick, grey tumbling mat that always smelled of feet.
 
It wasn’t October in Los Angeles as Billy sang. It was long ago…June bug hot and Popsicle cold. When Billy J. offered up “Bad to Me,” it was blue skies and birds on the wing.
 
For me, Billy J. Kramer will always sound like summer. His is the sound of days free from care. A lost innocence.
 
Jude Southerland Kessler is the Author of The John Lennon Series
 
http://www.johnlennonseries.com
 
Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler
 
Follow Jude on Facebook here

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By Any Other Name

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We call it The Fest.
 
We could say “convention” or “gathering” or “conference” or “meeting.” But it’s more than that.
 
It’s also “celebration” and “party.” The Fest for Beatles Fans – whether it’s held in New Jersey, Chicago, Las Vegas, or L.A. is always so much more than the trite, run-of-the-mill weekend symposium or show. It’s indeed a festival…a joyous fête uplifting of The Beatles and who they were and what they stood for, then and now. It’s a fest of their love.
 
In Los Angeles two weeks ago, we experienced that feeling with an awareness borne from time to think and reflect. Oh there were crowds and we were busy, but we weren’t OVERWHELMED the way we were in February at the New York Fest…we weren’t inundated as we were in Chicago. The authors and presenters and speakers who gathered on the “Left Coast” had moments to digest what was going on and to let the HISTORY of the moment sink in.
 
Directly across from my booth in the Marketplace stood Julia Baird, John’s sister, taking time to have her photo made with every single person who asked – signing autographs and sharing memories. At times, I could feel how very exhausted she was, but like John, she turned no one away. Julia kept smiling and hugging and making each fan feel special and unique. And when they walked away she didn’t roll her eyes or secretly snipe at them. Her love for each person was genuine. I know. I could see.
 
Beside me sat Ruth McCartney, takin’ the mickey out of everyone in her path…especially me. She had a blast from the moment she arrived ‘til the last second that she walked away. Selling her own brand of McCartney tea, Ruth was a force of fun to be reckoned with…a whirling dervish of deviltry. She was all nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Loved it!
 
It was a weekend for standing and chatting with Bob Eubanks who once brought The Beatles to the Hollywood Bowl…a weekend for learning The Cavern Stomp from the lovely Freda Kelly, who (quite fortunately) will never  ever change…who will always, as the song says, “stay as sweet as you are.” It was a weekend for laughing with Ivor Davis over  Ringo’s 1964 escapades and for smiling from ear-to-ear as Dave Morrell spun his web of loosey-goosey experiences, sharing the moments he spent with John just “horse-doggin’.” Those were the days, my friend.
 
The L.A. Fest was a weekend of music: the rock rant of Mark Hudson, the mad sax of Mark Rivera, and the “Hey Jude” of Mark Lapidos. All reMARKable.
 
It was Denny Laine, Denny Seiwell, and Laurence Juber all WINGing across the stage together…together, minus  One.
 
It was Bruce with the serial number and history of every Beatles record ever made and Chuck with a photo of each stop along the concert highway. It was me with 4000 footnotes and Kit with two upcoming books and Michelle and Jessica flowing past in 8-inch platform heels and burgundy “Help”-inspired, hooded capes. It was “Liddy Dave” with his quick wit and Candy with her inborn Beatleness. It was Susan stepping up to emcee us all…and Wally toting his penguin, a wry Thisbe (or Pyramus?).
 
We photographed one another. We made Beatles news for Steve Marinucci and Adam Forrest. We got up the courage to tell Julia how much she meant to us (well, I did). We bought T-shirts and books from one another. We had dinner together. And we laughed. We laughed as if our lives outside those walls realm had vanished, as if Joy was all we had.
 
For one weekend, we were all sixteen again.
 
Someone called The Fest for Beatles Fans a family reunion without the squabbles…and it is. It’s  a magical mystery tour where she loves you and everyone feels fine. It’s a ticket to ride to a realm where each quirky person is completely accepted and totally loved.
 
When John Lennon gave his stamp of approval to Mark Lapidos’s idea to create a “Beatles Fest” forty years ago, he was unwittingly endorsing The New Apple…a gathering of creative souls to sing, dance, act, speak, read poetry, do yoga, imagine, and remember.
 
And so, in an important way, we are continuing The Business of The Beatles. But to most of us, it feels like nothing but “fest!”
 
How many days ‘til the next one?
 
Jude is a John Lennon author/historian whose writing style is geared for fans, as she explains in great detail all angles of events in a very enjoyable manner. Head to Jude’s website to explore her works:  http://www.johnlennonseries.com/
 
Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler
 
Follow Jude on Facebook here

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