"I'm so alive
I'm so enlightened
I can barely survive
A night in my mind
I've got a plan
I'm gonna find out just how boring I am
And have a good time

Cause ever since I tried
Trying not to find
Every little meaning in my life
It's been fine
I've been cool
With my new golden rule

Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
And talk is the same cheap it's been

Is there a God?
Why is he waiting?
Don't you think of it odd
When he knows my address?
And look at the stars
Don't it remind you just how feeble we are?
Well it used to, I guess

Cause ever since I tried
Trying not to find
Every little meaning in my life
It's been fine
I've been cool
With my new golden rule

Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
And talk is the same cheap it's been

I'm a new man
I wear a new cologne and
You wouldn't know me if your eyes were closed
I know what you'll say
'This won't last longer than the rest of the day'
But you're wrong this time
You're wrong…

Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
I'm over the analyzing
Tonight

Stop trying to figure it out
Deep will only bring you down
You know, I used to be the back porch poet with a book of rhymes
Always open knowing all the time I'm probably
Never gonna find the perfect rhyme
For 'heavier things'"

This could be the song of my generation.

I've been talking with a few of my friends recently, and we all agree: the world is messed up. We're messed up. We're part of the problem. So is culture. So is society.
We've messed up Love. We've messed up relationships. We have no idea where we're going as a society - no idea as individuals.

Putting ourselves first, we all agree, leads to destruction: both of ourselves, and others. We become stagnant, dissatisfied… life starts to taste empty.
Creativity dies.

And then the agreement ends.

Last night a friend of mine asked, half rhetorically, “but, what can we do?�
The problem is so big. And we don't know where to start when addressing it.
How can we address it when we're part of the problem?
What is right and wrong anyway?

It will hurt addressing it, and we're scared of change; especially when we have no guarantee that the change will be positive.

And so “New Deep� kicks in.

We shrug our shoulders. We pretend to move on. We try to forget these issues.
We can't deal with all the meaning we've uncovered… and we don't want to dig deeper, because doing so will hurt.
It hurt to dig this deep.
We're scared of what we might find.

So we strive to make ourselves “Numb�.
Live the culture. Give in. Become blind. Stop trying to find every little meaning in your life. That's boring. Talk is cheap anyway. Wear a New Cologne - it will change your life. That's what the ads tell us.

But I love to undertone of “New Deep�. That's why I'm listening to it on repeat right now.

The song has a strong element of satire. John Mayer sings these things, but the words he chooses show that he doesn't buy what he's saying.
Not really.
Not enough.
And his “new Golden Rule� doesn't satisfy him.

�Is there a God?
Why is he waiting?
Don't you think of it odd
When he knows my address?
And look at the stars
Don't it remind you just how feeble we are?
Well it used to, I guess…

… And talk is the same cheap it's been

I'm a new man
I wear a new cologne and
You wouldn't know me if your eyes were closed
I know what you'll say
'This won't last longer than the rest of the day'
But you're wrong this time
You're wrong…�

And it's the same with us as a generation.

We strive to make ourselves numb, but, deep under it all, we can't actually escape these questions; this knowledge that we're willfully ignoring something - something important.
Our own words ring hollow in our ears.
Ignoring the stars just makes life feel more plastic, more cardboard, more hollow.
And ‘a new cologne' doesn't change anything. Much as we'd like to pretend it does.

Let's be honest.
We've given up asking simply because we've lost hope of ever finding
“A perfect rhyme
For ‘heavier things'�

But we all still want to. We have a deep yearning for meaning, for beauty, for truth, at the core of our beings.
It's still there much as we try to wallpaper over it.

Don't deny it.
Don't shrug and move on.
Ask the questions.
Pursue it.
It's important.
Maybe the most important thing in life.

Aren't we always saying that we only get one shot at life?
That we want to live life to the full?

You only live once.
Don't spend it “Numb�