“That’s great. It starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane, And Lenny Bruce is not afraid…”
If you were a teenager or twenty-something in 1987, like me, it is easy to recognize the great opening line of the R.E.M. song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”. It was quite the anthem for those of us who felt we were calling out “the man” and showing our rebellious side by dancing to this unique song. Never mind that in Nov 1987, when it came out, I was sufficiently comfortable in my public accounting job in Denver. Perhaps my willingness to shout these lyrics was a juxtaposition to having passed the Certified Public Accountant exam. Was I showing my “crazy” side? Was it a release valve for a stressful uptight professional life or just my willingness to let my hair down on the weekends while maintaining my mild-mannered accountant disguise during the week? Or was it just a good song?
Thirty-nine years later, it feels like it was a prescient song that was fun to sing and dance to.
I think the song needs a revival now. It is a great song to accompany the energies of breakdown for breakthrough, the concept that many have spoken about for at least 25 years. Sometimes it feels like the breakdown is coming more quickly than the breakthrough, but the ultimate result is the same, that “I feel fine”.
The chorus of the song is a study in the peace of detachment. “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.”
The chaos displayed in the song verses is like the chaos we see in the outer world, in the breakdown of the systems in the illusion. The protagonist is even willing to announce that it is the end of the world as we know it, but that he feels fine. The singer is detached from the chaos and the crumbling world, and is at peace about it. The singer is in the world but not of it.
This is how we will master the illusion ourselves.
Try breathing in Divine Peace. Then breath in Divine Detachment. Alternate breathing in these resonances as long as you are guided. Feel the energies as they become your truth. This will help you navigate “The end of the world as we know it” and I suspect you will feel better than fine.
Namaste.
Gratitude to Prashant Sharma for the beautiful image.