Growing up decades ago, power outages were normal occurrences. They typically happened three to five times every year. My mother had candles to light. And she had a special cooking set for power outages. The old furnace would continue to operate as long as the pilot light remained lit. Power outages were a part of my childhood. They were something that would happen during a storm. In the darkness and absence television, radio or any kind of lighting other than candes and battery-powered flashlights, my mother and I would listen to the wind howl and patiently wait until the power returned. What was always funny was that the telephone had a separate power supply, and I do not think we ever lost telephone service. During the power outages, we could call my grandmother and grandfather across town. We would ask them if they had lost their power or not and what they thought of the weather.
Today in Hermes, our family hardly ever experiences power outages. Those that happen tend to be brief. But just a few weeks back, a heavy wind storm denied our home power for over twelve hours. It was a unique experience. The furnace went out with the power and so the house slowly cooled down. The phones no longer worked because they had lost their power. Our mobile phones had whatever charge was remaining but we generally refrained from using them in case there was an emergency need to use the phone.
Philip and Chloe were not used to existing without power. There was no television. And even though the computers' batteries were reasonably well charged, they had no internet connection. Amelia and the kids ate dinner at the house of family friends house who lived in a remote part of Conquistador that somehow still had power. I ate dinner at my office before heading home.
The result was that we all arrived back at home around eight o’clock in the evening. The house and the neighborhood were completely dark. Even the street lamps were dark. The moon was behind a cloud but there was a section of sky we could see from the family room that was completely clear and the stars looked particularly bright with the absence of any town light reflecting back from the sky. The house temperature had dropped about ten degrees below our normal thermostat setting. It was chilly, but bundling ourselves in blankets was all we really needed.
Eight o’clock was too early to simply go to bed. Philip was glad he was up-to-date on his homework, but he liked to be ahead one or two days and the power outage initially made him anxious about his studies. We ended up sitting in the family room together. The exception was Philip. He chose to stand. We had as many candles as we could lit in the family room and we could see one another's dim faces.
In a quite natural manner, we began to talk in a way we hadn't in a long time. All four of us were speaking and interacting on the same topic at any given time. The driver was Philip. It became one of those times when Philip was particularly willing to be open and transparent. He was willing to indulge our curiosities. He talked about his life at Hermes High School. He answered Chloe's questions that she had asked often, but never had gotten a solid answer. He told us about his classes and about life as the lone guy on the cheer squad. Chloe asked Philip about the social dynamic at the High School. She asked questions about how popular kids acted and what they did differently. She wanted to know to what degree things she had seen about High School in movies was accurate. Philip gave Chloe thoughtful answers that explained how what she had seen in movies were partially true. He explained what was realistic, what was a stretch, what was a common misunderstanding and what was pure fiction.
The conversation lasted over two hours. In the end we felt more connected. It wasn't just that Philip opened up to us. It was also a sense on Philip's part that we weren't pestering him for information or judging him in any way. While Philip talked a lot, the conversation really was a four way interaction. Chloe shared about things that happened at Hermes Middle School and solicitted feedback from all of us. Amelia and I talked about what we expienced during our Middle School and High School years. As a group we shared our opinions on what was the same and what was different between the generations.
All of us were so satisfied with the power outage, we decided to fake a power outage every so often. Two weekends later we turned out most of the lights, lit candles and for the last hour before bed, the four of us talked. It wasn't exactly the same. In some ways it was better. We had microwaved popcorn and the blankets were optional since the heat was running. The fact was, we had caught up significantly during the actual power outage. This pretend power outage was more of a check-in. And I think that is all we need as a family. We just need one night every so often together with no television, phone or computers. Candle lighting adds ambiance but is not required.
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