Gentleness and Directness
My Dear People,
On the thirtieth anniversary of his death, here follows a little story about John Lennon that I came across recently, a story that resonates, in an unexpected way, with where we are in the church year:
Astrid Kirchherr was young and in love with her young artist-musician fiancé Stuart Sutcliffe, in 1962, when Sutcliffe died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. Sutcliffe had been the original bassist for the Beatles.
After Sutcliffe's death, George Harrison and John Lennon were among the close friends who helped Kirchherr through her grief. Looking back on that time, Kirchherr remembers:
"You know, all of my friends helped me an awful lot. First of all, John did, and George, the two of them. John had a very funny way of telling the people he loved what was going on. And one day he just said, 'You have got to decide if you want to live or die. There is no other question. And you think about that, then we'll talk about it again.' And George was just sweet, not like John, in a harsh way. But the thing that helped me was John."
+
There is a time for gentleness, and there is a time for directness.
There is a time for the babe in a manger, and there is a time for John the Baptist.
Your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
