aumsworld

Angel at the Assembly Line?

I have the strangest dreams!

One example (don't laugh, okay):

Once upon a time, there was a CEO who was a the head of one of the world's most popular companies. He owned restaurants, he owned businesses, he owned product chains, he owned factories. However, many people suspected his business practices to be somewhat - how shall I say? - fraudulent, and spread rumours behind his back about his lacking work ethics. God, hearing those rumours and wanting to see for Himself whether they were true or false, therefore sent an angelic embassador to the CEO with order to visit the latter's company.

The CEO was very polite with the little heavenly visitor. He took it on a tour to visit his numerous restaurants, stores, and offices, giving it samples, explaining to it his management and marketing strategies, introducing his employers to it, etc. The angel, I must admit, was having quite a lot of fun. It kept trying to touch and inspect everything, asked constant questions, and looked around itself with eyes curious and wide in awe. That is, until it saw the assembly line.

Now the CEO, who had studied business management in college and knew the best ways to make money, did not hire occidental workers to make his products. Oh no! Occidental workers were way too demanding, fickle, and undependable. They asked for huge monthly paychecks, summer holidays, paid sick leaves, coffee breaks, and who knew what else! A good CEO, such as our hero, could not afford heeding such nonsense. No, he did not hire occidental workers. He went into strange, undeveloped countries to build his factories, and then he explored the cities' poorest neighborhoods looking for homeless children. Children who would then work for him, chained to the assembly line, for free! Children who did not ask for pregnancy leaves and paid holidays, but just for a bit of dry bread and water everyday. Children who cost him basically no money.

Now the little embassador angel, who had quite enjoyed itself until then, saw the children at work on the assembly line, tenths and twenties of them, dirty, sick, underfed children, who worked and worked and worked from dawn until dusk, chained besides the assembly line. Like all angels, it was a sensitive soul, and to behold such pain, such sadness quite nearly broke its heart. It began weeping and weeping sweet angelic tears. The CEO, who was quite upset and worried, tried to reason it. "I'm running a business," he said, "and I'm here to make money, not to be a humanitarian. You have to understand! It's okay! As long as I'm in it for business, and to make money." But the angel wept on.

Now there came a struggle in the CEO's heart, as he realized that the angel embassador, when returning to God, would probably tell Him the story of everything it had seen, and therefore give him a bad reputation and - who knew? - get him sent to Hell. He tried even harder to reason the angel, but as it went on weeping he took his decision. He dragged the angel over to the assembly line, and there chained it besides the children. "Work!" he told it roughly. "And then you'll know what it's like to run a business. I'm here to make money, not to be a humanitarian. And it's okay! As long as I'm in it to make money."

And so the angel remained chained at the assembly line and working for the rest of its very long life, weeping its gentle heart out as it went, and the CEO went on to become one of the world's richest and most respected men.

And it was okay! As long as he was in it to make money.

(Hm... I think I should drop business administration class. I think it's giving me nightmares.)

Aum

{Aum's note: there is now a revised version of this fairytale in my port. I like to rewrite my journal entries.)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholden.