Across the Universe
We have been listening to a lot of The Beatles lately. I put on Revolver a couple of months back, wanting to hear the new edition. We basically got to “Good Day Sunshine,” and have had that on repeat ever since. It’s Theo’s absolute favorite….along with Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” (I swear to God nothing gets better than hearing a four-year-old belt out the phrase “sexy baby” from the backseat on a daily basis.) But back to The Beatles.
I’ve been playing the red and blue compilation albums at home for him/me because I simply cannot take “Good Day Sunshine” on repeat, however pleasant a tune it is. They’re the “albums” that introduced me to the band when I was a teenager and I still love them, sometimes more than actual albums. I know the song progression even if I don’t realize it. I know the lyrics. I know the feelings, places and memories the songs evoke. I can hear “Penny Lane” and I’m 15 in Shanghai. With “Revolution,” it’s suddenly 1998 and Jon Lombardo is dancing on a bed in a hotel at the base of Taishan. And then I get to “Across the Universe,” and a boy I dated is telling me I’m not supposed to like it, that it’s a “bad” Beatles song, and “everyone knows that,” and if I like the song, I have bad taste. But I do like it—very much—just secretly from then on.
Women more than men allow others to tell us what we should or should not like, what we should or should not wear, eat, say, listen to. Why do we allow this? Why didn't 16 year old me scream from the rooftops “HEY I LOVE 'ACROSS THE UNIVERSE' AND I DON’T CARE WHO KNOWS IT AND I DO HAVE GOOD MUSIC TASTE BECAUSE IT’S MY TASTE AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS?”
Take this: it’s not awful, but it’s not particularly delicious. Spinach. Mango. Apple. Parsley. Cucumber. Hemp. A goddamn green smoothie. Apparently, I’m supposed to like this. But I don’t. But I will drink it because I want to. Not because anyone says I should. Because I am surrounded by cancer. And I’m trying to be healthier. And I’m trying Dry January too. Again: cancer, cancer, everywhere…and not a drop to drink….except for this green atrocity, gulped down with a “bad” Beatles song blaring in the background.