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DCL
Mental Floss has a video online of Jamie Lee Curtis talking about her family being in the mountains in Idaho when the whole state lost power. She essentially describes how that wasn't such a bad thing: they figured out how to make (rudimentary) food, flush toilets (by melting ice), they even managed to have a little fun with each other. "Just being without the juice for one day changed our whole existence. My family played music, we played games, we actually talked to each other."
But within 24 hours of the power coming back on, the four of them were back at their laptops. Her comments are worth noting: how interesting it was to see "how quickly we get distracted, how the juice distracts us from any real interaction."
It's clear from the comments posted, and from the discussions Jamie Lee Curtis mentions having had with her husband about intentionally giving up power, that going without electricity now and then can be a really enjoyable, therapeutic, and if done in groups, relationship-strengthening practice.
Time to reflect
This is more than about saving electricity for the environment's sake—though that's important too. It's not easy to give up electricity completely—I know this from having lived in a hut for a year without it—but it's important to recognize the role it plays in our lives, and if or when we feel that our entire existence is dependent on it, that may be the point to cut ourselves off.
