Jesus of Nazareth is arguably the most studied and influential person in history, a prophetic figure for some, worshipped by millions. Yet he never had the advantage of turning on a light bulb, or using electricity in any form. Somehow he managed to live on this planet without what we assume is a necessity of life. Everything Jesus did followed the rhythms of the day and the seasons, with only oil lamps challenging the darkness.
Of course, approximately 1.5 billion people still live without electricity. It's hard to imagine how we North Americans ever got along without electricity and when the power switches off, even for minutes or hours, we are at a loss as to how to function.
After yesterday's blog it seems appropriate to follow up with the reminder about Earth Hour tonight. At 8:30 we are all invited to unplug for 60 minutes, hardly a huge commitment. Some critics say this symbolic "lights out" accomplishes very little, but I do think it raises awareness of our dependence, and the impact it has on the environment. I also appreciate that this will be happening in countries around the world including, for the first time this year, Chad, Iraq, and Uzbekistan.
My mother has been encouraging the folk in her seniors' residence to turn their lights out at 8:30, which may not be far off bedtime!(I couldn't resist Mom.) We are looking forward to spending time with neighbours for dinner and an hour by candlelight.
Will you/did you turn out the lights at 8:30? Have you ever existed for any length of time without electricity?
5 comments:
Bowmanville is known for power blackouts in the summer. Why, I'm not sure. When our kids were little, we would light the candles, sit around the kitchen table and play board or card games. It was always a very special family time. We also camped a lot and some of our best times were around a blazing campfire. We never hooked up to electricity and always managed just fine. We still manage quite well, when necessary, without electricity. Mind you, when we are camping we can go by battery power rather than electricity if necessary. As far as the kids go? Well, I guess so long as all their cell phones, I pads, laptops, etc.,etc., were well charged, they'd survive too.
We will turn out the lights and continue to entertain neighbours by candlelight.
We had earth hour at school yesterday, and turned off all computers and lights for an hour. Due to safety, washroom lights had to stay on. It was interesting comments that were made by kids. Some didn't notice, as it was a nice sunny day and since we have lots of windows, life continued as normal. However others were ticked that they had to write down which library book they were taking out, rather than use the computer! Nothing was done at our daughter's school, but we did get an automated message from KPR asking us to register on-line if we took part in earth hour. Interesting....
We were up north when the big black out happened across Ontario several years ago. We prepared our meal on the BBQ, boiled water for dishes on the BBQ and then functioned by candlelight the rest of the evening. We were in a location that was only out for 6 hours.
Unfortunately, we won't be able to participate in earth hour - we will be at a Sarah McLaughlin concert! I don't think an hour of silence and darkness during the concert would be too welcomed!! Too bad...I always enjoy that hour.
We had all my wife’s family over, turned out all the lights, but left the hockey game on.
Partial participation I guess.
We couldn't participate Saturday either, but our kids won't let us forget the night of candles, so we observed an "earth hour" of our own on Sunday evening and reviewed the on and OFF function of light switches and the true function of the laundry hamper.
I couldn't help but think how nice it was to have no other "noise" in the house but voices in conversation.
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