Last night, I went to bed at a reasonable time, wanting to get the early bus to work. That was not to happen. Â When I laid down, my chest began to hurt. Not heart hurt, but perhaps lung hurt: Â It was also harder to breathe, and my breathing out ended with a high, thin note. It reminded me of my asthma, and I found it impossible to sleep.
I got up and took some asthma medicine that I had bought earlier this year. I am not sure how much it helped, or that it was even necessary. Â I associate asthma with certain death, but actually many people have it for years or decades, although they do have shorter life expectancy. Â My pulse was in normal range, which it would presumably not have been if I actually was lacking oxygen. Still, one thing following another, I had bouts of pretty bad coughing, leaving my throat sore. Â Some three hours passed, though they were not wasted. Â Eventually I started playing my copy of The Laws of Eternity, the movie that had first introduced me to Happy Science. Â I got as far as to the Hell of the Bloody Pond before I became very sleepy. Stopping the movie, I fell asleep in my chair immediately. Â An hour or so later I woke up and went to bed, and slept without any further problems.
I took the later bus to work, but even then I had slept so little, I expected to have to nap repeatedly. That did not happen, however. I napped not once at all, and was not horribly sleepy either. Perhaps that will come tomorrow. I guess it depends on the work too.
***
I sometimes wonder whether working is really the best I can do for humankind. But in the end, I always decide that yes, it is. Â If not, someone else would have to do this work, and other people would have to give me money anyway. Â If there was a lot of unemployment in Norway, perhaps I would feel differently, but the opposite is true. Â We lack qualified workers still, even while the world is in a “shadow recession”, where the recession has ended but the jobs have not come back. Â So I am not taking the job of someone who needs it more than I do.
And I don’t have a very strong faith that I would do something more worthwhile if I were not at work. Â I don’t notice myself being awesome each weekend, for instance. My work is probably a better expression of love for mankind, for all its failing, than teaming up with other imaginary heroes in City of Heroes. Â Perhaps not better than keeping up my journal, but I don’t think it is the work that is the greatest threat to that…
***
On my way to work, I overheard a seemingly normal young man telling someone that he studied marketing. I was filled with pity for him. It must be terrible to get into such a demonic field at such a young age. Â There are of course forms of marketing that are simple and honest, but they are not common in this time and age, nor do I believe they require much education. The thrust of advertising is distinctly demonic, a work of tempting and manipulating people to inflame their greed and their desire, to divert their soul from the Infinite to an infinite number of finite things. Â Humans will do the heavy lifting themselves, due to our nature in this regard, but there is still a strong effort to inflame the delusions of the material world, to make people think that happiness comes from outside them.
Don’t try being demonic at home, kids!