Had John Lennon not been walking home on that fateful December night, he’d have turned 70 today. For his fans all over the world he is turning 70 anyway. We’ve been ridden of the necessity to see him age, to disappoint us in something, just as well as we’ve had to walk it alone, with “Imagine” playing in our heads. Most importantly, for those of us who strive to be better than we are, Lennon will always be an example of how to make it, of how to become a worldwide music and peace figure.
 |
| John Lennon in video, Citroen stand, Moscow Design Week, October 2010 |
His life, however, provided more impact and inspiration than the person who had led could even fathom. And I wonder if Lennon would smile, irony hidden in his eyes, upon entering the Moscow Manege that welcomed the exhibition l’ART DE VIVRE à LA FRANÇAISE. For the first thing he’d see would be the Citroen stand (Citroen was the official sponsor of the Moscow Design Week 2010), with the presentation accompanied by two videos, one with Marylin Monroe, another with John Lennon. Both iconic figures had something important to tell us: be yourself.
Perhaps, this is what makes celebrated artists, dead or alive, so attractive: they are (or were) themselves. They led their lives in that particularly painful way of following one’s own mind. As a result, we admire them. But do we try and follow their example? Do we want to be ourselves as badly as they did?
