Mindless Pop Culture - what "The One I Love" means

Pop culture may be called lots of things, but deep and profound are not typical descriptions.

I'll admit to listening to occasional pop music - it's often easy on the ears and mind.

To enter the pop music arena with a song that carries deeper, darker meaning takes talent.
I have to commend one of my favorite bands, R.E.M. for exploiting the vapid ear of modern day pop audience with such a tune.

R.E.M., not really known for their explicit lyrics, has pulled a fast one on us.
They have a song, "The One I Love" that entails an explicit subject matter, but most people who hear the song have no clue about this.
Read the lyrics. "The One I Love" is about a man who is masturbating, and dedicating each orgasm/ejaculation to someone. It should now be evident what "a simple prop to occupy my time" refers to. Also, the chorus "Fire" describes the exstacy of the orgasm. Lastly, "she's coming down on her own now" describes the refractory period, detumescence of the penis, after male orgasm.

In this era of radical FCC clamp downs on indecency, one has to commend R.E.M. for a song that many view as a "love song" and has received unfettered airplay on public radiostations, yet deals with the explicit subject of masturbation.