You may say that I'm a dreamer

I was singing the kiddies to sleep tonight, like I do most nights. And yeah, I sang the same old, same old Eva Cassidy, who else? But she's the only one who's always been able to put them to sleep. And George - Gerswhin, that is. I'm surprised that they haven't started complaining as yet and suggest I change my repetoire...

I sang "Who knows where the time goes?" (like always. It's a song I have a strong vision of myself singing on a stage someday. Don't ask me why...), then "I can only be me". Then, quite spontaneously, I started singing her version of Lennon's "Imagine". Hadn't sung it in a while and I thought, man, I have to sing this song to the kiddies more often, have to get it embedded in their little angelic heads. 'Cause it's just the kind of message that I want to teach them, for them to remember and to live by.

I didn't sing it often as a kid. Guess the nuns weren't too keen on us questioning the existence of heaven and hell. But I'll never forget that at one school assembly we all sang "Give Peace a Chance". Now, don't ask me why we sang it 'cause I haven't the faintest, can't recall any conflicts during the mid-80's besides the Reagan/Gaddafi standoff. But I have to say that I still remember the words (we all got a photocopy of the lyrics), and the whole school standing out there in the Aussie sunshine, singing in one voice:

Two, one two three four
Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

C'mon
Ev'rybody's talking about Ministers,
Sinisters, Banisters and canisters
Bishops and Fishops and Rabbis and Pop eyes,
And bye bye, bye byes.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Let me tell you now
Ev'rybody's talking about
Revolution, evolution, masturbation,
flagellation, regulation, integrations,
meditations, United Nations,
Congratulations.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Ev'rybody's talking about
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer,
Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna,
Hare, Hare Krishna

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

I loved it. At the time, I thought it was the greatest song I'd ever sung. Not frumpy like the rest of the stuff we had to sing at school before. It was energetic, toe-tapping, powerful, revolutionary stuff. And of course, had words like masturbation and flagellation in it, words frowned upon by the nuns.

I've since realised that there were many better songs written out there but I think there are few that promote peace as compellingly as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine".

Here's hoping that my kiddies one day live by the message in the songs...