Across the Universe

“Jai Guru Deva, Om

Nothing’s gonna change my world.”

Listening to this song for the first time in a long time, I grasped how somber the lyrics are. I once thought it was just a silly song like so many other Beatles songs, but “Across the Universe” is quite profound, pondering the futility of innovation.

“Words are flowing out
Like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe”

Every noble idea does us no good if it is not carried out. This unwillingness to act, or rather this unbelief in our own greatness and our own ideas disables us. We stymy progress. And rather than follow through with our noble ideas, we become complicit in and complacent with evil.

“Pools of sorrow, waves of joy
Are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me”

Across the nation today, children are being placed in detention centers well beyond capacity, being stripped of family, comfort, hope. Across the nation today, migrants seeking solace are facing battle with the elements and battle with their own kind. Across the nation today, people are being treated like vermin.

“Images of broken light
Which dance before me like a million eyes
They call me on and on across the universe”

Across the nation today, we feel helpless. We don’t claim to have the answers, but we know the situation as it exists cannot be right.

“Thoughts meander like a
Restless wind inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe”

We don’t know what to do, so we do nothing. We turn off the radio. We ignore the news. We try to focus on the good in our own lives.

“Sounds of laughter, shades of life
Are ringing through my opened ears
Inciting and inviting me”

Across the nation today, we are blissfully unaware of how blessed we are, that we need not travel across the universe in order to have a chance at freedom, even at the risk of losing everything else.

“Limitless undying love
Which shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe”

And yet, it is because of this blissful ignorance, that we choose comfort over greatness. We turn away from injustice. And so injustice spreads.

“Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world”