Saturday, June 20, 2009

like water on a rock

Ever heard Rufus Wainwright sing "Across the Universe" by The Beatles? Well, what are you waiting for? Heard Fiona Apple's cover of it that played in the movie "Pleasantville"? It's on YouTube...

I sit here looking out our dirty spare bedroom window listening to this and other Beatles covers from the soundtrack "i am sam". Never saw the movie, but I am just a little more than slightly in love with the Beatles. I looked up what "Jai guru deva om" means, and not only am I embarrased to say I thought he was saying something about Jackaroo, which was a book I read in junior high(as improbably as that may be), but it is Sanskrit. Oops.

On 4 February 2008, at 00:00 UTC, NASA transmitted[2] "Across the Universe" in the direction of the star Polaris, 431 light years from Earth. The transmission was made using a 70m antenna in the DSN's Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, located outside of Madrid, Spain. It was done with an "X band" transmitter, radiating into the antenna at 18 kW.

This was done to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song's recording, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network (DSN), and the 50th anniversary of NASA. The idea was hatched by Beatles historian Martin Lewis, who encouraged all Beatles fans to play the track as it was beamed to the distant star. The event marked the first time a piece of music had ever been intentionally transmitted into deep space, and was approved by Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, and Apple Records.[3] (The first musical interstellar message was "1st Theremin Concert to Aliens", section 2 of the Teen Age Message.)


Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind....


What was Lennon's world-and how did all those thoughts/feelings/moments/images not change it? He surely dug transcendentalism and meditation...did those things really drift through his mind, leaving nothing permanent behind?

I want to make more time to meditate. I have a tendency to think of things clinically, and not fluidly. I can't explain the difference very well, but it feels like the difference between strolling on a beach or running on hot coals.

Wu wei:literally meaning without action. Wei wu wei: action without action. Often paralelled with water-soft and weak but it can carve out stones and flow unendingly.

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