De-electricity

I don't know why I keep thinking we are all here to learn something out of life. Maybe there's nothing to learn but more to live and then learn to get by with what happens.

In any case, I believe there is a lesson to be learned on the force of Nature's experiences. I do remember having this kind of reflection back in 1985 when Mexico had a huge earthquake. My dad rented a water pipe and we drove along my grandmother's neighborhood to hand out water.

In the past few days it all came down to a microcosmic social behavior at it's best. Whoever had a generator had all the power in the world as we knew it. For a few days, in our lucky existence, electricity and not the loss of our houses, pets or stranded dear ones, was our main concern because it kept food, communication and the weather of the other world going, the one that we momentarily lost.

We all made a pilgrimage to The Power Generator and brought food and alcohol with us. People started to trade their skills towards the investment of time. I offered yoga classes, some offered knitting, some paintings were finished, conversations and wine became the pastime amongst others.

Stripped from all technology, nude to our minds and skill sets, it all came down to what you know. Of how can you fix and mend, of how can you use tools again and preserve what's left to get by (again, lucky to write "get by" and not "survive"). 

Amongst us, Minnie turned 80 that day and I thought, how unlikely she will ever have another birthday under those exact circumstances. But I kept thinking too of how electricity or to be more precise, digital technology has become such an undisputed King in any land. For example, even if WalMart had thousands of dollars worth of perishables, they would not be able to sell them due to their electronic inventory, a simple monetary transaction would be chaotic to their reliable and worshiped electronic system. Instead, small stores suddenly became important where they used to be disregarded for these inefficient systems and maybe other matters. Radios, watches, telephone lines, gas and not electric stoves were for some days, the good ole' reliable technology. The Google World became a dead pawn that fell right away and with no signs of a big struggle.

I have no answers for this but I've been thinking that we should all be power or electrically self-sufficient. We should all be able to power our houses with the kinetic energy of our bodies (biking to charge the cell phone for example). Those close to the levys, use the flow of water to help power other houses. Solar cells, wind... I believe there will be power in the knowledge of how to survive without electric power. 

Finally, the biggest learning has to come from our perceptions of reliability. Illusions of what's needed, of how we solve situations and how we connect to others with the good ole' skills Minnie was probably used to, 80 years ago.