Oscar Wilde said, “a map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.”

Much later another countryman of Wilde’s gave my generation and later ones that map when he sang “Imagine.” The song still resonates and reminds us that the politics of the present moment will limp some without a measure of utopia.

Martin Luther King at about the same time did much the same with his evocative words and imagery of a kinder, gentler, and just world — a Beloved City.

Social movements today as well as yesterday require poetry and high notes as well as practical politics. And the best politicians are ones that combine both in their person and words.

Lyrics
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, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will 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, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one