From the back page of The New York Times
Sunday, May 27, 1979
The past ten years we noticed everything we wished came true in its own
time, good or bad, one way or the other. We kept telling each other that
one of these days we would have to get organized and wish for only good
things. Then our baby arrived! We were overjoyed and at the same time
felt very responsible. Now our wishes would also affect him. We felt it
was time for us to stop discussing and do something about our wishing
process: The Spring Cleaning of our minds! It was a lot of work. We kept
finding things in those old closets in our minds that we hadn't
realized were still there, things we wished we hadn't found. As we did
our cleaning, we also started to notice many wrong things in our house:
there was a shelf which should never have been there in the first place,
a painting we grew to dislike, and there were the two dingy rooms,
which became light and breezy when we broke the walls between them. We
started to love the plants, which one of us originally through were
robbing the air from us! We began to enjoy the drum beat of the city
which used to annoy us. We made a lot of mistakes and still do. In the
past we spent lots of energy in trying to get something we thought we
wanted, wondered why we didn't get it, only to find out that one or both
of us didn't really want it. One day, we received a sudden rain of
chocolates from people around the world. "Hey, what's this! We're not
eating sugar stuff, are we?" "Who's wishing it?" We both laughed. We
discovered that when two of us wished in unison, it happened faster. As
the Good Book says -- Where two are gathered together -- It's true. Two
is plenty. A New Clear Seed.
More and more we are starting to wish and pray. The things we have tried
to achieve in the past by flashing a V sign, we try now through
wishing. We are not doing this because it is simpler. Wishing is more
effective than waving flags. It works. It's like magic. Magic is simple.
Magic is real. The secret of it is to know that it is simple, and not
kill it with an elaborate ritual which is a sign of insecurity. When
somebody is angry with us, we draw a halo around his or her head in our
minds. Does the person stop being angry then? Well, we don't know! We
know, though, that when we draw a halo around a person, suddenly the
person starts to look like an angel to us. This helps us feel warm
towards the person, reminds us that everyone has goodness inside, and
that all people who come to us are angels in disguise, carrying messages
and gifts to us from the Universe. Magic is logical. Try it sometime.
We still have a long way to go. It seems the more we get into cleaning,
the faster the wishing and receiving process gets. The house is getting
very comfortable now. Sean is beautiful. The plants are growing. The
cats are purring. The town is shining, sun, rain or snow. We live in a
beautiful universe. We are thankful every day for the plentifulness of
our life. This is not a euphemism. We understand that we, the city, the
country, the earth are facing very hard times, and there is panic in the
air. Still the sun is shining and we are here together, and there is
love between us, our city, the country, the earth. If two people like us
can do what we are doing with our lives, any miracle is possible! It's
true we can do with a few big miracles right now. The thing is to
recognize them when they come to you and to be thankful. First they come
in a small way, in every day life, then they come in rivers, and in
oceans. It's goin' to be alright! The future of the earth is up to all
of us.
Many people are sending us vibes every day in letters, telegrams, taps
on the gate, or just flowers and nice thoughts. We thank them all and
appreciate them for respecting our quiet space, which we need. Thank you
for all the love you send us. We feel it every day. We love you, too.
We know you are concerned about us. That is nice. That's why you want to
know what we are doing. That's why everybody is asking us What, When
and Why. We understand. Well, this is what we've been doing. We hope
that you have the same quiet space in your mind to make your own wishes
come true.
If you think of us next time, remember, our silence is a silence of love
and not of indifference. Remember, we are writing in the sky instead of
on paper -- that's our song. Lift your eyes and look up in the sky.
There's our message. Life your eyes again and look around you, and you
will see that you are walking in the sky, which extends to the ground.
We are all part of the sky, more so than of the ground. Remember, we
love you.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
New York City
PS. We noticed that three angels were looking over our shoulders when we wrote this!
Regina Spektor and Jakob Dylan reveal their rendition of Love’s “No
Matter What You Do” from the Echo In The Canyon film soundtrack, out
5/24 on BMG. Echo In The Canyon - the acclaimed new documentary about
the Laurel Canyon music scene from 1965-67 directed by Andrew Slater and
featuring Jakob, Regina, Beck, Brian Wilson, Fiona Apple, Ringo Starr,
Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and more - opens in Los Angeles this Friday, May
24th. Listen to “No Matter What You Do” here: https://echointhecanyon.lnk.to/NoMatterWhatYouDoAudioPR
This Thursday, May 23rd, the Arclight Cinerama Dome will host a special
red carpet event and screening celebrating the film’s release.
Following the screening, Stephen Stills, Jakob Dylan, Jade Castrinos and
Cat Power - who star in the film - will perform the music of The Beach
Boys, The Mamas & The Papas and Buffalo Springfield with the Echo In
The Canyon band. The Cinerama Dome is one of Southern California’s
most iconic movie theaters, having hosted world premieres for Apocalypse
Now, Back To The Future, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The
Extra Terrestrial, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and more. Echo In
The Canyon opens to the public on Friday, May 24th at Hollywood’s
Arclight Cinerama Dome and Landmark Theater with showings throughout the
weekend. Special guest performances will take place after the 8:30 PM
Cinerama Dome showings on May 24th, 25th and 26th and 7 PM Landmark
showings on May 24th, 25th and 26th. The film features illuminating, in-depth interviews with Tom Petty
(his last on-camera interview) Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, David
Crosby, Stephen Stills, Jackson Browne, Michelle Phillips, Ringo Starr
and others, revealing never-before-heard stories from that time and
place. Echo In The Canyon will open in New York at the Angelika and
the Landmark at 57 West on May 31 before the film’s wide release in
select theaters this June.