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       Normal life has always seemed a little scary to me: and over the years my fear of this
endless accumulation and improvement has deepened   - especially when the world around us was
clearly dying:  and we have responded to this with smarter mountain air conditioning  and new
respirator designs.
       I've tried many times to convince friends and family: that they are victims  - that it
is not important how it looks:  but how it serves a purpose:  that we're leaving our children
nothing but debts and Himalayas of trash:  and the hope and the freedom lie in simplicity and
discipline.  But it always ended up  making me feel like a victim myself  - of serious mental
illness - and later I stopped doing it.
       Unfortunately:  it also turned me into a reclusive introvert  and slowly tore apart my
marriage.
       My credo:  "Great love:  modest life:  simple work  and music in all forms:"  lost its
first most important point.
       And Lyra spread its arms in the sky. 
       When I walked between the dark school buildings at night:       and checked the locks:
handles and windows:      I often looked up:     and imagined the details of the lives of its
inhabitants:
       What is it like: to wake up in the morning  among the stars  in the middle of your own
sci-fi novel?
       What do people who look down on me dream about?
       And the moon? 
       It must be amazing to almost swim in the Oceanus Procellarum.
       One ordinary Thursday evening: chance left its merciful door ajar: and I heard my wife
talk about me as a dirty: smelly piece of shit.  It was like she was taking out my heart with
a knife. I understood: that in her world: I came into her life to live it  - and my reward is
that she tolerates me in it.
       I don't think I've slept since then.
       After that: not a shred of trust remained between us: and not a hint of intimacy - and
the Academy gave each of its employees the inplant and two-week stay at Lyra for Christmas.
       Of course. I flew out the very next day. It was finally hope.
       The injection also changed my character in some way: and it happened immediately. I no
longer had to think and scroll through thousands of options and started taking action.
       On the bulletin board  at the reception  of the hotel:   where I spent  my first green
night: an orange sign was lit: "We are looking for a maid - starting now."
       What do you think?