First, because I got to go home early from work (mwahaha).
Second, because I've always believed that we would just be better off without computers, TVs and any other glowing screen that sucks away souls.
The reaction to the blackout was priceless: Some initially panicked, traffic was insane to the point of the police force and military being sent out to direct intersections, and a few accidents occurred.
But as people settled at their houses and got their spare candles out, a sort of blackout "magic" worked its way over San Diego. I'd like to call that magic human interaction. My roommate and I sat out for 3 hours talking, laughing and drinking wine with our neighbors, something I'm not sure we would have done had it not been for the lack of power (those pesky glowing screens). I ventured out on the street and saw the same thing everywhere. People with people. Sitting on their lawns. Talking to their neighbors. It was like we were transported 50+ years in the past, and simpler times were playing out before our eyes like a feel-good film.
I heard a few cheers when the power got turned back on, but secretly I wished for the opposite. Today I'm anticipating people being distracted, yet again, to what's truly important. All to rush off to their phones and computers, and check their facebook notifications. A silly notion when you realize we could just interact with each other in person, here and now, instead.
I always feel that way about blackouts (except the time it went off on Easter right when we were about to start cooking the ham, grrr, we had to bbq it)! I love that everyone sits around chatting with no tv or internet, and it also makes you go to bed earlier and have a more natural rhythm. I remember Vancouver had very frequent power outages one winter over a few week period, and I kind of got used to that whole way of life. : )
ReplyDeleteIn my creative writing class this past spring, we had to do a writing on this very subject: write about what would happen if our entire country was under a blackout except... nobody knows the entire country is under a blackout because there isn't any way to get news out to people with no electricity. (At least FAST news.) It was quite an interesting assignment and I loved exploring what life would be like without all the technology we enjoy today.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be good to not have this obsession with technology that we all seem to have, no matter how much we profess the opposite. Technology is definitely good because it allows us to interact with people all over the country (and world) that we would have never had the chance to meet or know otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think, though, that we ALL could use a little less of it in our day to days lives.