My Gen X Playlist: Higher – Creed

Last week I saw a news clip where the President proclaimed prices were coming down. It’s shocking to throw out such a boldface lie when the dollar doesn’t go as far for groceries and gas prices are easily topping $5 per gallon. It’s only a matter of time that this recent conflict takes notice of the tariffs sitting at the end of the bar and the two combine forces. The President seems to think by repeatedly calling the affordability crisis a hoax that we just might begin to believe him. Fat chance. How effing stupid do you think we really are?

And before the far right sounds their rallying cry to crucify me, I’m totally aware that this inflation problem began under the not so careful watch of good ol senile Joe. I’m not letting him escape without a few scratches. He deserves his fair share of credit for serving us this Costco sized slice of shit show pie. If I ever wanted to experience shrinkflation, it would be on this.

And let’s be honest, Mr. President. Self-inflicted is self-inflicted. The economy seemed to be on the road to recovery before you decided to reach into your Felix the Cat bag of tricks. Why couldn’t you just park yourself in front of the TV and let nature take its course. You could have easily taken an economic victory lap and none of us would have been the wiser that you spent every day in your jammies, eating Big Macs and bathing in Diet Coke. Instead, you thought a cluster bomb of tariffs was a good way to flex your manhood before doubling down with the random decision to throw actual bombs. Both should never have been on the menu to begin with. And if there really is an existential threat to our country that warranted a preemptive strike, then just level with us and show us the cold hard facts. We can take it if it’s the god’s honest truth. None of this swimming in a sea of obfuscation, blindly throwing 100 rings high into the air, hoping one finds it’s way around the neck of a Coke bottle. Let me break it to you. You’re oh for one hundred. Nothing is landing. This is not a carnival game, Mr. President. Lives are being lost.

I know I’m ranting and it’s falling on deaf ears. Who am I to change anything? But if I don’t let it out, I might explode. And that, my friends, is definitely NSFW. I never intended to get this worked up. It’s just when I hear stupid shit, it triggers me.

Even though the song has nothing to do with inflation, it made me think about the Creed song title, Higher, because that’s the only direction inflation is going. I did a little research to find out what the song is really about.

A frequently misinterpreted song, in the September 2000 edition of Spin magazine, Scott Stapp explained that this is is not about Christ’s ascension to heaven or taking a big bong hit, but is about the power of lucid-dreaming. “You’re physically asleep, but you’re awake in your mind,” he explained.

He read a book about Hindu monks who have perfected the technique and thought it might help him squelch a recurring nightmare: He’s running down a highway, closely pursued by a man with a gun. He turns left and hides behind a pillar beneath an overpass but gets shot anyway. Stapp says that once he learned how to lucid-dream, he was able to alter the nightmare so that he turned right and escaped. After, he wrote “Higher” about the experience, he never had the nightmare again.

Songfacts

I think some of us would benefit from this lucid dream trick. Anything to squelch this recurring nightmare. Where’s a Hindu monk when you need one?

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

When dreaming I'm guided to another world
Time and time again
At sunrise I fight to stay asleep
'Cause I don't wanna leave the comfort of this place
'Cause there's a hunger, a longing to escape
From the life I live when I'm awake

So let's go there
Let's make our escape
Come on, let's go there
Let's ask, "Can we stay?"

Can you take me higher
To a place where blind men see?
Can you take me higher
To a place with golden streets?

Although I would like our world to change
It helps me to appreciate
Those nights and those dreams
But, my friend, I'd sacrifice all those nights
If I could make the Earth and my dreams the same
The only difference is
To let love replace all our hate

So let's go there
Let's make our escape
Come on, let's go there
Let's ask, "Can we stay?"

Can you take me higher
To a place where blind men see?
Can you take me higher
To a place with golden streets

So let's go there (Let's go there)
Let's go there (Let's go there)
Come on, let's go there (Go, go there)
Let's ask, "Can we stay?"

Up high I feel like I'm alive for the very first time
Set up high, I'm strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine
Set up high, I'm strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine

Can you take me higher
To a place where blind men see?
Can you take me higher
To a place with golden streets?
Can you take me higher
To a place where blind men see?
Can you take me higher
To a place with golden streets?