Despite some of the hardships of life, I have to admit that I’ve had the benefit of growing up in a pretty fantastic time in history. While not the case in other parts of the world, I enjoy the benefits of healthcare (in whatever stage it exists now), proper nutrition and access to food whenever I want it and safe, warm shelter from the elements in the form of my home. I sincerely appreciate all of these things and couldn’t see myself living without them but despite that appreciation, it can often be quite easy to take these as a staged for granted; or completely forget that they’re advantages. Enter: last weekend…
Friday nights are usually earmarked for an evening with my oldest son, Nathan. We started this tradition almost by accident a few years ago, and it involves grabbing snacks and enjoying a binge-fest of old school Nintendo games in the basement, followed by “camping out,” which usually involves Nathan crashing on the floor and I sleep on the guest bed we have in the basement. I’ve gotten too old to sleep on a blanket on the basement floor. But I digress. Just roughly after supper was made, the power went out. It’s a little hard to hang out in a basement with no power. Not to mention that the gaming system wouldn’t work, anyway.
Luckily, we live in a world where lack of electrical power doesn’t necessarily cut you off from the outside world. A quick search of our energy provider’s website revealed a downed line in a central area as the cause for the power outage. The question now was, what to do with our time. Nathan and I ran out to buy our evening snacks, committed to getting on with our evening once the power returned. The power outage had a significant radius and we had to drive for quite a while before reaching a part of the city that had power. Given that most locations operate based on debit machine and/or use electronic cash systems, we couldn’t shop anywhere nearby where we reside.
Once we got home, the power was still out. Considering we’re slowly creeping our way into the summer months, days are longer and it remains light out for longer periods. For my wife and I, no power isn’t a huge issue. She was able to read by daylight and i was able to muck around on social media and YouTube, considering my phone had a reasonable charge to it. But have you ever tried to convince a 4 and 9 year old to entertain themselves without screens and devices? This is unfortunately the world they live in, and convincing them to play games or use toys was surprisingly hard. I ended up putting on a movie on a portable DVD player to keep them engaged.
Throughout the course of the next couple of hours, we contemplated how we would address meals for the following day if power wasn’t restored. Considering the reported extent of the damage, we could have found ourselves without power throughout the night. Luckily, power came back on just shortly prior o 9 pm and I was able to get a couple of things done and have a bit of time with my son for our Friday night. But it certainly opened my eyes and had me recognize the fact that something I take for granted on a daily basis is a definite luxury and getting through our daily routine is significantly compromised without it.
My wife and I have been binge-watching Dr. Quinn in recent months (don’t judge us!) and I’ve often thought how peaceful and easier life must have been, back then. But after seeing how our house basically came to a standstill just because we didn’t have power (while it was still light out, no less), I’m a bit more inclined to appreciate the creature comforts that modern life offers. We don’t realize just how much we use it, until we don’t have access to it. Food for thought… 😘
The Blogging Buddhist 