I've seen the light...

I used to bend light as part of my living. It was the most interesting thing I did that afforded me the luxuries associated with regularly compensated economic compliance. I got to manipulate the direction of the energy, maybe the origin of the universe while I was manipulated by financial entities. It seemed like a reasonable trade off at the time.

Actually, all I did was contain it. Well, I didn't really contain it. I pulled and pushed and hung the container in an acceptable manner that the people who designed the container thought would allow the light to bend. They were users. It wasn't the light they were concerned about but the data; the encrypted messages that rode on the light. They only wanted to make sure the information got from A to Z ASAP and if the light was not bent right then that was deemed inefficient. I also fitted the attachments designed to couple the container to the end devices. I cut and glued and polished per specifications. Sometimes I spliced. Sometimes I used something called a time/domain/reflectometer. It made sure the light was behaving the way the upper hierarchy wanted it to. With contained light, there can be no anarchy.

The light was taken for granted. As being the origin of the universe, it already existed and was there by the grace of something and that made it a natural resource. The emphasis was first on the devices that resided on each end of the container; the ones that shot the light from one end to the other. Light when contained, has a beginning and ending. Then the devices got to be boring, and the emphasis turned to the way the messages that rode on the light got written and who got the legals rights to that written word.

Somewhere within this process, my contribution was deemed a commodity that was considered a necessary evil. I didn't improve anything in the way of efficiency. I just became a constant... a constant drain on the bottom line. Light was also deemed a constant. But since light didn't need a paycheck, it was okay for it to stay. When I left, I turned off the light. I'm sure someone found the switch and turned it back on. When the light isn't right, a trouble ticket is issued and a person responsible to get the light back to working right is dispatched. For that moment the light was off, I only hope it enjoyed the break.