Lavender gray sky fades to twilight in the winter chill. Brightly colored lights sparkle on snow. The door opens to a warm enveloping glow sprinkled with laughter.
Ahhhh. What a memory that is. It recalls home and the holidays. The festive activity. The smells. The traditions. The anticipation of seeing loved ones. The bittersweet longing for days long ago and people no longer here.
John Lennon wasn’t writing a Christmas song when he wrote the lyrics to “In My Life,” the Beatles classic that debuted on “Rubber Soul” 40 years ago. But he was writing a deeply personal story of love and loss. It’s hard to read his words and not recall holiday gatherings with family and friends over the years.
“There are places I’ll remember all my life though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remain.”
When set to the melody Lennon and Paul McCartney collaborated on–and all these years later there is still a dispute about who wrote what–“In My Life” becomes an elegiac hymn to life past and present.
“All these places have their moments. With lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living. In my life I’ve loved them all.”
The song’s theme is simple and universal. It’s about life and love and death–and remembering them all. And ultimately, it’s about love today, this day, the promise of the present transcending yesterday’s sorrow and loss.
“But of all these friends and lovers, there is no one compares with you. And these memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new.”
It doesn’t matter who the “you” is. The “you” could be lover or friend or spouse or child or parent or family. It doesn’t matter where the place is. All that matters is that it provides a welcome respite from the cold at dusky twilight on a winter’s eve.
“Though I know I’ll never lose affection for people and things that went before. I know I’ll often stop and think about them. In my life I love you more.”
The past is ever present, more so at this time of year than any other. That’s because these holidays are so freighted with people and places we remember. But ultimately this season, like Lennon’s song, affirms the future.
