A few weeks ago, October 9, to be precise, a full page advertisement appeared in the New York Times.  It said simply, "Imagine all the people living in peace."  It was placed by Yoko Ono, widow of former Beatle John Lennon.  October 9 was Lennon's birthday.  He would have been 74 this year.
     As most of us know, these words are drawn from Lennon's classic recording, "Imagine." Aside from reminding me of the enduring tragedy of Lennon's abrupt passing on December 8, 1980, Yoko's ad made me think, again, about one of the central tenets of Lennon's existential vision:  peace.  It is a vision to which Lennon devoted much of the last decade of his life.  Although we may question or debate some of his methods (sleep-ins in posh hotels; shaving off most of the hair on their head, to name just a few), most of us can hardly quarrel with their ultimate objective:  global peace.  Like the rest of us, Lennon was acutely aware of the near impossibility of achieving such a thing, but he nevertheless did his best to push the planet in that direction.  He used the accouterments of his wealth and fame to give peace a "hearing" in the discussion halls of the world.  For this, we cannot fault him.
     From most standpoints, political, religious, scientific, philosophical, cultural, we can conclude that permanent and lasting global peace will likely never happen in our lifetimes, nor the lifetimes of our very distant descendants.  There is too much baggage working against it.
     Furthermore, even if everyone on the planet is able to achieve a permanency of inner and personal peace, this will not necessarily translate into world peace.  We will remain captives of ourselves and our desires.  We cannot escape who and what we are.  Nor should we.
     Many of us find personal peace without believing in God.  However, if there is no God, our universe is a vast, empty composite of space and time.  Personal beings will never tame the meaningfulness of an impersonal universe.
     Peace needs a context beyond itself.