I used to love R.E.M. – the band. The one that dominated college radio for a while. They had some good serious songs. Then one day, they released one of the silliest songs ever called Shiny Happy People.
Shiny happy people holding hands
Shiny happy people holding hands
Shiny happy people laughing
I woke up thinking of this song the other morning as I was pondering the concept of unraveling and readjusting after the covid year we all experienced. Who are we now and where are we headed?
With crime rates spiking and an all-time need for therapists (though there is a dearth of mental health resources), people’s placement on a so-called happiness spectrum must vary tremendously day to day.
Anxiety appears to be at an all time high. Different sets of new worries are all the rage. People are in deep contemplation as to how to move forward. Many want new jobs, new places to live or just an abstract sense of newness that may be hard to attain.
Categories: Culture, current events, identity, mental health, Psychology, society
psychologistmimi 
“Shiny Happy People” Oh God Yes Devil No Yes
Alas Life is a Rorschach Test Fascinating
Reading the YouTube Comments Some
Folks Finding Darker ‘R.E.M.’
Meanings
Of the Song
Some Just
Uplifting With
Glee for No Reason At All
True Some Children Are Born With
A Smile Others With A Frown So Many
Naturing And Nurturing Variables At Play
Some LiVE iN
Heaven For
No Reason At
All Others in Hell
For No Reason At All
Deep Within Sun That Never
Quits Shining or Moon That Never
Fails to Go Farther Than New And Totally Dark
And Some of Us Are Blessed Twice Once Bitten
By Joy Then Despair Then Reborn Joy Again
And Even More
Some Days
Just For
No
Reason
At All Like A Gift
That Changes Its
Soul to Be a Curse
In a ‘New York Minute’ too…
Honestly in the ‘Dark Place’ ‘That Song’
Hurts So Much Honestly in the ‘Light Place’
Oh Just One More Dance Even Higher Than ‘Fore
Shiny Happy People i Used to Listen to “Earth Wind And
Fire” Pondering How i Came Out of A Darkest Place Then Just
Wanting to Stay Playing in the Greater Place i’d Listen to the Song
“Woke Up Sunday Morning” That Came On Right After “After the Love
Is Gone” on the “I AM” Album As That Was the Song that Played on the
Dance Floor When my First Love Said All of the Sudden She Was Going
Away When i had No Reason Why that Happened It felt so Cruel As If it Was
Almost Like ‘They’
Made that Song
Just for that
Moment in
my Life
Whenever
i Wanted to
Feel Darkness Again
From the Light in Nostalgia
For Decades All i had to do
Was play that Song Again in
Relief of Not Being in Such A
Sad Place Then in Victory that if ‘She’
Didn’t Tell me She Was Going Away i wouldn’t
Have met An Angel who Was Strong Enough
to Stay with me in Hell for 66 Months Anyway
The Earth Wind And Fire Song is Actually Named
“Let Your Feelings Show” And On Sunday Mornings
Before Singing in The Church Choir i Would Play it
After the Ebb of “After the Love Is Gone” And i remember
The Day A Young Woman in the Choir Said i Just Have
to Cover my Face as Your Face is Just too Bright of Course
She Struggled With Depression And My Face Hurt Her Just like
The Shine of my Mother’s Face at Age 75 When i Was 47 in the Darkest
Part of Hell in Pain and Numb Where Happiness of Others So Far Away
And Lost From That place Felt Like Stakes in A Vampire Soul Dead With
Not Even
A Bite
of Death
Left in Life
“Let Your Feelings Show”
Working For the Military for
25 Years i had to Find A way
to Hide the Shine to Survive
Going To School With A Smile
That Was’t Welcome in Trump Town
USA in the 70’s i Was told Shine Wasn’t
Allowed At All at Threat of Violence Losing
Effective Use of Eyes and Ears Having to Wear
Shades And Eventually A Mask Over A Smile Then
i had Already Made The Effective Adjustment of Dance
to Smile every where i go True Let Your Feelings Show
For me at least
is life
or
death
Still Now
The Cause of Most
Disease Folks Who Do Not
Let Their Feelings Show Freely
From DarK To LiGHT for Repressing
Genuine Authentic Emotions is Repressing
our Very Breath that makes Life worth living
Shiny Happy People Shiny Happy People
Enjoy it While They Can And Will rare indeed it is
And A Pandemic Provides A Space for Introspection
Where Folks Decide Life is Maybe Actually Worth Breathing
True They May Never Go Back to ‘That Job’ as A Cog in a Machine
True They May Move Away to Another Country/State/Town/Place Within
to Find A Greater Way
of Freedom
True Change
is Possible
too…
And The
Factory For Cogs
Working in a Machine
May always Be Short of ‘Parts’ Now…
Dark Teaches Great Lessons When We Look
Deep Enough Within And Truly Let our Feelings Show…
And It’s True Too When We Find a Place That is Complete
And Enough Within Giving Sharing Caring Freely Paramounts
Any Disgust
of the
Capitalism
That Chews
The Only Home
We May Ever Treasure
As Heaven Now Away
to the Disgust
of those
Who
Have
Yet to
Learn to
BREaTHE Free
in Real Victory of Loving
This Breath Now for Free
Where Feelings Are No
Longer Bought And Sold For Paper Dreams
LikeLike