Radiohead

Ever wish you weren't able to remember so much about your life, all of the painful or embarassing details, that you could just let it all go and move on with your existence? This theme is central to "Lift," which in my interpretation uses amnesia as a metaphor for escape and renewal of life. The protagonist is sit down by authorative but warm figures, who tell him while he sits confused and frightened, completely unaware of where he is and what is going on about him, that "it will not hurt." They saved him from the lift he was stuck in, basically his previous miserable existence, where he was neither going up nor down, while others were trying to reach him and implore him to try to live again. He empties his pockets of all his previous regrets and ill thoughts and, no longer plagued by them, proceeds on to the next phase in his life with assurance and calm. "Today is the first day of the rest of your days," the advice is given as he is pushed out through the doors and into the world, signaling a new start for himself and his future, a lesson most if not all can sympathize with, be it religiously or professionally or otherwise. We all want our own particular brand of escape, to get the lift moving again, and to leave behind our differences and our sorrows no matter what the costs.