Perspective on Electricity

Some thoughs from a guy who has had to go without power for weeks at a time.

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So a storm has just knocked out power in the city I'm in right now. A few years ago I would have found this sort of event commonplace because I was living as a missionary in the Philippines at the time, there were times when a week or more would go by without us having power, but that didn't change much of what we did as missionaries since we were not burdened by technology, and it didn't change much of what the filipinos in the rural areas I was in did either because much of the technology that people in places like America take for granted simply wasn't accesible to them.

Looking back at my time in the Philippines I am ashamed to say that when the power went out here I was a bit anoyed that it was messing with my plans for the rest of the evening. I'm smart enough to know that it is foolish of me to get angry at the weather, no power grid is perfect so any adult should learn to be paitent with that sort of thing. That being said we should expect our electricity to stay on in times when there is no reason to be out. If you live in an area where you are asked to ration power, you should be petitioning your governments to make wiser energy decisions, sure fossil fuels may not be sustainable but wind and solar (no matter how cool they are) are not viable replacements, we should be embracing nuclear power.

Anyways I don't want to use up too much of my laptop battery. There are really two things I think people should expect and do in regards to electricity. People should expect to have power when there is no reason for them not to have it, but they should also live their lives in such a way that a lack of power won't disrupt them, in other words we should be prepared for a power outage and we should have something to do in a power outage. Expect technology to work when it should, but don't be dependent on it during the times that it shouldn't.