{"id":4504,"date":"2015-01-06T16:33:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T21:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?p=4504"},"modified":"2015-01-06T16:38:07","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T21:38:07","slug":"living-with-eyes-closed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/living-with-eyes-closed-2\/","title":{"rendered":"“Living with Eyes Closed?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLiving with Eyes Closed?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLiving is easy with eyes closed
\nMisunderstanding all you see,
\nIt’s getting hard to be someone
\nBut it all works out.
\nIt doesn’t matter much to me\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

John Winston Lennon<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nMy sister refuses to watch the news. \u201cI just don\u2019t want to know about it,\u201d she tells me. And on one level, she\u2019s SO right: Life is to be enjoyed! (And yeah, I know\u2026 the news is never good.)
\n 
\nOur own John Lennon voiced a similar opinion. \u201cLiving is easy with eyes closed,\u201d he sang. And he was right. Life\u2019s so much smoother if you don\u2019t know the details.
\n 
\nBut wait!! Was John advocating living<\/em> that way, or was he pointing out (in typical Lennon satire) how very wrong that kind of attitude is? Wasn\u2019t John asking us to examine our actions just the way he always did in \u201cInstant Karma\u201d or \u201cHappy Christmas (War is Over)\u201d or even in \u201cRevolution\u201d?
\n 
\nI think what John was pointing out is that \u201cliving with eyes closed\u201d is NOT what we\u2019re called to do. It\u2019s not <\/strong>how we\u2019re called to live.
\n 
\nThe answer to, \u201cAm I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d is still a resounding \u201cYes!\u201d? And especially in this season, we\u2019re reminded that we\u2019re inexorably linked to the poor, the war-torn, the abused and neglected, and the lonely. (\u201cAh, look at all the lonely people!\u201d Paul penned.)
\n 
\nWatching 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.
\n 
\nBut maybe this year, we can OPEN our eyes, take a good look at the world around us, and then do something<\/strong>.
\n 
\nMaybe right now, at this moment, we can decide to make 2015 the year in which we:
\n 
\nVolunteer at a shelter
\n 
\nWrite a letter to a congressman
\n 
\nGive (a little or a lot) to a good cause
\n 
\nContribute a song or quote or photo to the Fest Facebook page<\/a> or the Moments group<\/a> to lift someone\u2019s spirits<\/span>
\n 
\nTweet something important
\n 
\nChampion a cause
\n 
\nPlant a neighborhood garden
\n 
\nTutor a child
\n 
\nDrive someone to work or to the grocery store
\n 
\nClean up the neighborhood
\n 
\nForgive an old wound
\n 
\nCook for a neighbor who works long hours or who is elderly
\n 
\nRake someone\u2019s leaves
\n 
\nCall someone who is lonely and chat
\n 
\nBuy a ticket to The Fest<\/a> for someone and give it to them anonymously! (It\u2019ll be the best time they\u2019ve ever had!)
\n 
\nKnit a scarf for someone who works in the cold
\n 
\nTake in a rescue dog or cat
\n 
\nEncourage someone to make his or her dream come true
\n 
\nStand up for what you believe in
\n 
\nGive sincere compliments\u2026(you know, the things you think but never have the courage to say)
\n 
\nWithhold judgments
\n 
\nBuild faith
\n 
\nTry to smile more and gripe less
\n 
\nIt\u2019s 2015, people! This year, let\u2019s take a peek. Let\u2019s open our eyes.<\/strong> Let\u2019s understand what we see, and then do<\/strong> something about it! Let\u2019s make the world less \u201ca lonely branch\u201d and more a \u201cStrawberry Field.\u201d
\n 
\nWhat say you?
\n 
\nJude Southerland Kessler
\n 
\nhttp: \/\/johnlennonseries.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLiving with Eyes Closed?\u201d \u201cLiving 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\u2026\u201d John Winston Lennon \u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d   My sister refuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[8,84,96,117,30],"class_list":["post-4504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baby-boomer-beatles-blog","tag-john-lennon","tag-jude-kessler","tag-strawberry-fields-forever","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-fest-for-beatles-fans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4504"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4510,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504\/revisions\/4510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}