Worth Saving?

I had a chance to sit down with Edward for a pint this evening, and he got to telling me about some troubling thoughts he's had lately. He's beginning to feel like mankind is not worth saving. For a long time he's been unhappy about the state of things - the wars, the way governments manipulate us, the way global warming is overtaking us but no one seems to be willing to do anything about it. But he's always thought, "Well, that's the politicians who are thinking that way (or not thinking, you may well argue.)" The people he knows personally feel quite differently. But today he took that line of reasoning a bit further. Who elects these politicians and allows them to have such fearsome powers over us? Why, we do. It's like that bumper sticker says, "We deserve the politicians we get." And then there's the other one, the one that says "If you're not outraged, you haven't been paying attention." OK, Edward wonders - where's the outrage? Too bad for the few of us who are trying to solve the problems of the world. The rest of the lot is perfectly happy to drive their SUVs, eat their high fructose corn syrup laden foods, get fat and watch telly. They'd fiddle while Rome burns, only learning to play the fiddle is too much work. They deserve what's coming, Edward said tonight with a mournful shake of his head.

Cheer up, I told him. Have you had your medications checked recently? Or maybe what you need is another pint. This one's on me.

Clive's Sleep Study, Pt. 2

So Clive goes to hospital, and they wire him up from head to toe, and tell him to go to sleep. He's a bit disquieted by the video camera that's mounted on the wall opposite his bed, but to his surprise he dozes off and sleeps surprisingly well.

A few weeks later he returns to the doctor. The results are strange: all night long Clive spent only 3% of his time in REM sleep. Twenty-five percent is considered the norm. Most of the night he spent in either Stage One or Stage Two sleep - what the doctor called "useless sleep." It's no wonder he's been feeling so dragged out.

The doctor says come back for another sleep study, and we'll follow that up with a Multiple Sleep Latency Test. That's when you stay in hospital all day and take 4 or 5 naps.

Clive wishes he could go for the next sleep exam tonight, but the soonest they can get him in is Sept. 12, nearly a month from now. So the story slowly goes on. Meanwhile, Clive says he feels like he's in a fog, sleeping his life away.