The Wonders of a Power Outage

We had a scheduled 2 hour power outage in our neighborhood yesterday. We had been forewarned that this would happen but the notice came out so long ago I had temporarily forgotten about it.

It happened right as I headed outside with the kids after school yesterday afternoon. We got through snack time and all of the 'bathrooming' necessary to take 8 kids outside (there isn't a window in our bathroom, so it was a blessing that the kids weren't required to use a flashlight or any alternate light source).

But the true miracle was the fact that Kurt couldn't spend those hours downstairs in his favorite room full of all of our technological wonders. The TV, X-Box and computer were all out of commission and it was pitch black in the room. He was 'forced' to come outside with us.

He was purely disgusted at this inconvenience to his life. He plunked himself down beside me with a heavy sigh, determined to make me feel his pain. But instead ... we had a conversation.

I had an ever-growing list of things that I wanted to talk to him about, but in our world where he heads downstairs and immerses himself in video/TV/computer land .... and where I am either busy writing/exercising/working/running errands/making movies/or watching TV, we rarely sit down and chat. Any discussion we have seems to be with one of the two of us standing and raring to take off to our next most important task we have in mind. I believe it is the tragedy of our times. Too much technology, too little 'time'.

We had some interesting ground to cover, as I asked him about what he would like to do for his upcoming birthday. Then there are our summer holidays that I wanted to ask for his input. We are also planning to do some major moving and shaking around here as we move bedrooms/play areas/TV rooms all around over our summer holidays. I did have the nasty job of bringing up one 'parenting issue' that we have been skirting all week. But this conversation, placed in the middle of a sit-down-and-talk scenario went very well.

Oprah had a show on this very topic (making do with less - ridding your house of all technology, not going out to eat and sitting down at the supper table as a family) this week. As Kurt and I spent 2 hours in the void of power, I knew that our little family is falling prey to this disconnected feeling because of all of the 'toys' in our midst. I am no less at fault than Kurt on this issue. The thought of unplugging the computer, TV, DVD player, camera, video & tape recorder and my 'Wii Fit' game causes no small amount of anxiety within me.

At the end of our 2 hour vacation from technology, our life returned to normal. He went about his evening in his favorite oasis of the wonders of power. I heated up his supper in the microwave and raced through my after supper chores as I headed out to my dance lesson. Our return to our world as we knew it went seamlessly.

But I couldn't help but wonder at the miracle of those 2 hours that we spent without any other distractions.