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Peace Sign Hits Middle Age
By karen | April 28, 2008
At a trip to “America’s largest retailer” yesterday I saw some t-shirts that amused me. The shirts were made of recycled coke cans (or some such thing) and on the front of them it said “The Hippies were right”.
This morning on the Internet I read that the “Peace Sign” turned 50 on April 4. April must be the month to celebrate such things, as we have Earth Day and now the birthday of the Peace sign (and wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just say the birthday of Peace….but alas, no….).
The Peace sign was created by a British graphic designer named Gerald Holtom. He said “I drew myself….a man in despair….put a circle around it to represent the world.”
That is the first time I have heard that and it makes so much more sense to me than what my 6th grade teacher, Mr. H. said, which was “The Peace Sign is a broken cross signifying “anti-Christianity”.
It was confusing to me as here I was, a smart little girl, who did plenty of reading and thinking on my own and here was my teacher, a person in authority, telling me things that absolutely made no sense whatsoever. I mean after all, didn’t a Peace sign signify Peace?
I saw the signs that the protesters had on TV and they all had Peace signs and it didn’t look to me like they were saying too much about Jesus. It looked to me like they just wanted the Vietnam war to be over. And I agreed. I also wanted it to be over. I might not have understood it all but I could see the young men that were not really all that much older than me all decked out in combat uniforms carrying guns and none of that felt good. My friends and I all had those silver POW bracelets and even though we were only 11 and 12 years old, we all understood that the names on those bracelets represented real human beings that were either a prisoner in an enemy camp or otherwise missing in action. We wanted to take the bracelets off. We wanted it to be over.
The people with the Peace signs seemed like they wanted Peace and Love. It seemed like they wanted what we wanted. They hung around singing about going to “San Francisco with flowers in their hair” and “California Dreamin“ (both of those songs are still on many of my Ipod play lists. I still love those songs!)
What is wrong with that? When I asked, my teacher told me I was arguing and that I would understand more when I got to be an adult.
Well, Mr. H. I’m an adult now. I understand.
Mr. H. also told us that “Jude” from the Beatles song “Hey, Jude” was a synonym for the word “Jesus” and therefore it was evil and we should not listen (can you say Mor…ah…er… uhm, I mean…. what I mean to say is “religious” agenda…)
As I listened to the words of that song, again I couldn’t see that it was saying anything against Jesus. Seemed to me that it wasn’t talking about religion at all!
Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
Hey, Jude, don’t be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better.
And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
Well don’t you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
Hey, Jude! Don’t let her down
You have found her, now go and get her
Remember, to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better.
So let it out and let it in, hey, Jude, begin
You’re waiting for someone to perform with
And don’t you know that it’s just you, hey, Jude,
You’ll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder
Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
Later I read that Paul McCartney was actually talking about Julian Lennon, John’s young son. That again made so much more sense.
Mr. H. lost his credibility. He probably shouldn’t have had any to begin with. But at 11 years old, teachers are one of the authority figures.
And isn’t it funny how often people in authority try to stop us from thinking for ourselves.
I was just a kid. But adults fall victim at times too.
We should all learn to follow our own guidance and think for ourselves.
And yes, I still want Peace. And I do want to make it better.
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Topics: Personal Development, Living the Power, Reflections, Real Life |