Even in the stage when he needed to sell love songs to teenage girls, John Lennon was never shallow or sentimental in his lyrics; you could sense something deep behind even the simplest of his lines. By 1967 (the year I was born), in tune with the American ‘Summer of Love,’ John was singing ‘All You Need is Love,’ stating this as a fundamental truth. The hippie utopia passed like any trend, but Lennon's phrase still sounds believable. I imagine he became aware of this early on since, according to his own account, he was saved from being completely orphaned by the love of an aunt.
I was raised by my biological parents, in their own way and with their mistakes they more than fulfilled the role, and even so I think I have partly understood what it feels like to be an orphan. I experienced it when, tired of the hardships imposed on us by whoever the sadistic entity in charge of the baton in this concert of crazies is, my mom gave up, lost her ability to love, and let herself die. And she physically died, in her early sixties, after a long agony. I was already an adult, even so I felt completely naked, destitute, without a past, a future, or any meaning. All you need is love, my friend John said, and let me add, for those who have it but don't know how to cherish it: love is all you have, while it lasts.
Over the years I kept confirming it. I met so many others (some I considered friends) in whom I saw something similar, not everyone died like my mother but something inside them died. Lights that go out and don't turn on again.
©2026 - Walter Alejandro Iglesias