All You Need Is
"Gabriel, come here! Two of the Beatles are on t.v.."
Gabriel came and sat with me on the couch. There they were: Paul and Ringo being interviewed on CNN for a one-year-anniversary Love special.
"There's Ringo. There's Paul."
Gabriel accepted my assignments and watched briefly. CNN played a photo montage to Beatles hits. I continued. "There's John..."
"He was shot," Gabriel added.
"Yes, he was. But this was when he was alive. There's George."
"He got sick and died."
"Yes, Gabriel, he did."
"Oh, I know that song!" Gabriel grinned. All You Need Is Love was playing. "Look! You can see the words coming out of John's mouth."
The camera had a close up of the "live action" John Lennon (i.e. not the cartoon version from Yellow Submarine) singing. Gabriel stared at the t.v., enthralled.
Hannah and Mom joined us in the family room. After a commercial, CNN played another photo montage, and I sang along with the Beatles. Hannah smiled and clapped, encouraging me to continue.
Gabriel's toys soon called to him, and he turned away from the t.v.. Hannah and I continued to watch and sing.
By the end of the segment, Gabriel, predicatably, was climbing all over Mom on the couch (his version of cuddling). He noticed the name of the Cirque show in the bottom right corner.
"Mom, it says, "Love." All you need is love."
Yes, my son will grow up knowing who Paul, John, George, and Ringo are! Dad couldn't be more proud.
-- Dad
P.S. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend Across The Universe to you. Great film: really should become a midnight showing cult classic, I think. We'll see, though.
