Madonna performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” for NBC’s Tsunami Aid “A Concert of Hope” in January 2005.
After my six weeks in North Carolina, I was ready to continue my journey. On October 14, I loaded up my truck and headed down to West Palm Beach, Florida, for the winter. I decided to make Florida my first choice in finding a new place to live.Sweeping Changes (Astrology Forecast): Now is the time to make sweeping changes, not only in your consciousness but also in the circumstances in which you live. Conditions that have been developing slowly will force major changes upon you now. If you are flexible, you will be able to start a whole new phase of life, even though you may have thought that the time for new starts in your life is past. You will have a new birth of awareness, and you will be able to deal with your life unhampered by old patterns of thought that have limited you. But if you cannot adapt and be flexible, this will be a period of great turmoil and stress as you try desperately to hold on to circumstances, possessions, and relationships that no longer have any real function in your life. What you are trying to save is not something real, it is only an illusion. The impetus for change may come through persons who present you with many upsetting surprises, all of which show that your life is no longer what it was. The key point to recognize is that this process is not bad for you, it is just upsetting at first until you get into the flow of events. It can be quite exciting and will certainly inject an element of youth into your life again, with the advantage that now you will have the wisdom to handle it properly. – Copyright Astro.com
Initially, it was exciting to be in a new place. Florida was the complete opposite of Washington, DC. It was the breath of fresh air that I needed. The climate, people, and lifestyle were undoubtedly different.
During the first two months of my stay in Florida, I met some fascinating people. They were all handsome men, and I loved their dark hair, olive skin, and dark eyes. They were all just the right height, too.
December 4, 2004, rolled around (the 20th anniversary of me losing my virginity—see Like A Virgin), and I took time to remember Thaddeus. I was at a club on our anniversary when the DJ played back-to-back “It’s My Life” by TalkTalk and “Together in Electric Dreams” by Oakey Phillip and Moroder Giorgio, and it was those two songs that made me think of him and remember our anniversary. I was having a great time in Florida.
One day, I decided to stop in at Bally’s Fitness for a workout. That was when I ran into a guy I knew from 1984, from my days in Greensboro, North Carolina. His name was Mark. We talked in the middle of the gym floor and caught up on each other’s lives. I laughed when he told me that he was Elton John’s flight attendant, mainly because of the history between Madonna and Elton John. I thought that was a strange coincidence. Running into Mark and reconnecting with someone from the past was great.
Rewind: Nine Months Earlier- April 2004: I was still living in Washington, DC, and decided to take a trip to southern Florida to visit my friend, Joanna, and her family. During my trip’s West Palm Beach portion, I met Roberto at a dance club. He was out with some of his friends. I thought he was handsome, but I was too drunk to talk to him. I handed him my phone number on a small piece of paper and left the club. I returned to DC a few days later and was disappointed that he never called.
I moved to Florida six months later. After being there for a few weeks, I ran into him again. He looked familiar, but I could not remember where I had seen him before. We exchanged email addresses and emailed each other once or twice but never got together. I ran into him at the gym, and it dawned on me that he was the guy I had given my phone number to six months earlier. Roberto and I chatted for a few minutes in the gym, and he asked me out to dinner and a movie. I accepted. That evening, we hung out together and had a lovely time. I didn’t know it then, but I would spend the rest of my time in Florida with him.
In getting to know Roberto, I discovered he had a fascinating life. He was born in Brazil but raised by his neighbor because his mother was very negligent, and his father abused him when he was a child. By the age of 13, both of his parents were deceased. A monastery adopted him, and he became a monk several years later. At 19, he moved to Miami, Florida, with the monastery, where he lived as a monk until he was 25. At that point, he left the monastery, admitting to himself that he was gay. He could barely speak English and had no work experience, so he lived on the streets of Miami, where he survived by moving from place to place, person to person. Then he met his current boss, who took him in, gave him a job, and made him his business manager.
Roberto was the first Buddhist that I ever met. I had the opportunity to learn about his faith, which was a tremendous experience. I loved learning about new cultures and new religions. I had friends who were Jews; I knew a couple of people who were atheists; I knew a few agnostics and several pagans. Everyone’s faith and belief system truly fascinated me. At this point, I started questioning whether there is a God out there who expects every human being on Earth to come to one conclusion regarding faith.
“Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace.” – John Lennon
To me, it felt like an unrealistic expectation. Roberto was the perfect example. Why should he give up his belief for another when he only knows his current faith? How could God or Jesus ask this of him? This concept did not make sense to me. And I really couldn’t understand why any God, or son of God, would want to create such a rule in the first place. Why was it so important to Jesus that everyone believed in him and only him? And, if he is such a loving soul, why would he expect that? And why would he condemn those that couldn’t meet his expectations? None of it made sense to me. I questioned whether this was the real intention of Jesus or someone else’s version of Jesus.
I continued to believe in Jesus but also respected Roberto’s faith in Buddhism.
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IMAGINE
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one