Lights in the dark

This isn't some ominous post, and I'm not talking about anything high fantasy.  There is no ring and no short hairy-footed hobbits that need to toss it in a giant volcano.  No, this is far less world changing in sorts.

The electricity went out in my neighborhood and city yesterday.  It wasn't until 20 hours later that the power and lights came back on.  We weren't particularly prepared for the eventuality of losing power for an extended period of time and had only a single candle in the house.  No batteries for the old flashlights to speak of.  Just a single candle found as the last rays of sunlight were illuminating the dark streets.

It was the first time in my adult life I'd been without electricity for an extended period of time.  Sure, I've had the power go off for a few minutes at a time, but never before 20 hours.  I can think of once or twice I've gone without power because I was camping, but that's an intentional choice to be without and care is taken in planning for it.

It got me to thinking about electricity and the roll it plays in our lives.  It cools us.  It warms us.  It cooks our food often enough.  It's there with us from the moment we wake up to an alarm clock to the moment we fall asleep to the timer on the radio.  We spend so much time using and being with electricity that it's the silent partner to our daily routines.  Most people have a cellphone, or a digital phone.  Rotary phones are few and far between these days.

It reminds me of the robots in R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (Penguin Classics).  Only instead of us fighting the robots.  We have become part robot - or cyborgs.  It's not that we've put computer chips into our bodies, or we run partially on electricity, but rather how we operate and move through life.  We have lights in all our rooms for illumination.  We have computers, televisions, satellites, cellphones, and DVD players.  All of these things have become part of what makes us who we are.  Do we fight these inclinations as the humans fight the robots?  We certainly do, but at the same time we also embrace the advancements that make our lives easier and more filled.

Social networking for the younger generations is an ever increasing part of this cyborgization.  So without electricity for even 20 hours, the pain is easily felt.  And I still had my smartphone to get me through the hours.  Next time I'll at least have more than one candle.