City-Wide Blackout

On Saturday there was a city-wide blackout. The great thing, though, was that they had announced it several days previously so that we would be prepared for it, which was nice of them. I'm not sure exactly why they turned the power off, but they did. It was scheduled to be off from 6 AM to 7 PM. You never think about how much you use electricity until you don't have it anymore :). No refrigerator, no internet, no listening to music, no working on the computer at all for lesson planning or paper writing or anything like that (my battery had also died), no watching TV, no hot water, no microwave or oven. It forces you to just STOP and simply BE.

I learned something from this experience. Things like blackouts bring people closer together. The sun was setting and it was getting dark outside. I opened my door to the hallway to get the last few glimmers of light I could for the time being and some of my neighbors were out in the hallway. We are always coming and going so often that I haven't had a chance to meet them (plus, on my floor it is run like a hotel, so it's never really consistent with the same people). They came into my apartment and were perplexed by my voluminous display of candles throughout my house (I guess they're content with the dark, but all of them were drawn by my candles). I gave them banana bread I had stored away, but was embarrassed that I didn't have anything to drink to offer. They didn't care (the banana bread was a winner, though!). Nobody spoke English and that day was not one of my better Chinese language days because I hadn't opened a book in a week, but we fumbled our way through conversation. It was just a delightful time getting to know my Chinese neighbors.

7:00 came, no power. 8:00 came, still no power. Now it's just dark :). Our team meets weekly for about an hour or two on Saturday nights for a special thought and studying time. Usually we sing and then play a message, but with no electricity all we could do was sing until the power came back on. So, by candlelight Seth led us with his guitar and we sang and gave honor to the Light of the World. We sang a lot of songs about His power and about being a light shining in a dark place. It seemed appropriate, somehow. 9:00 came, still no power. Seth is still strumming away (his poor fingers). 10:00, still no power. Okay, do we keep on singing and playing? We talk, we sing some more. We simply enjoy each other. We usually watch a lot of movies together, but it was nice to simply BE with each other. 11:00, still no power. :) Finally, the lights came on at about 11:15 and we had a good celebration after that.

So, if this is what a blackout does for people, maybe we should ask for them more often :) A single candle in a dark place draws people together- reminds us of our greater task, doesn't it?