Everybody Hurts

Some songs in my countdown are as much about the music video (remember those?) as they are about the actual song itself. Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. is one of those songs. The video is a focus on people’s thoughts as they sit in a traffic jam; it’s a hauntingly beautiful song that speaks about community as much as it talks of despair. Just listening to the song, you are being shown support and asked to just hold on, take comfort in your friends, you are not alone. When the tempo swells midway through the song, I’m swept away in the moment and brought back to every single time in my life that I wanted to give up and just stop the world, but then Michael Stipe brings you back to earth, telling you 'You’re not alone.' Like a hopeful beacon, he reminds you that although life can suck and everybody hurts sometimes, if you hold on you’ll remember the good and all the reasons to stay. Suicide isn’t an easy topic for anyone to broach. Certainly it’s not for me. It’s a permanent solution to momentary madness that inevitably leaves lives destroyed. You’ve devastated your mother and sister and lover and all your friends and co-workers and the list is endless, because when you decide to jump, you’re not thinking about anyone or anything but how miserable you are. But that isn’t everything, is it? It isn’t anything, really, in the scheme of things. And, you’re not alone, because everybody hurts. So hold on