Power failures have upside

Dear Editor: The last few weeks have brought in a couple nor’easters, and tens of thousands of area residents lost their electricity. Central Hudson had to call in reinforcements from other areas in order to keep up with repairs. Like many people in the area, we lost power at my house. For most folks who lose their power, there is a feeling of grave discomfort, inconvenience. Most of us are in a suspended state waiting for the power to come back on so that we can plug back into our lives. Of course, there are immediate necessities like heat and refrigeration. Although in the cold weather, refrigeration is not such a big deal.

I, on the other hand, felt both inconvenienced and strangely relieved. It was a breath of fresh air to take a break from TV news for one night. We lit some candles and read by the fire. There were hardly any cars on the road, and the quiet was a tonic for the soul. The absence of overstimulation helped me think more clearly. Yes, it was cold, I couldn’t take a shower, and we had to eat peanut butter sandwiches. We had to deviate from our routines and adapt.

I started to wonder. What if we just turned off the power two days out of the month? I know the majority of people won’t want to do it. Life circumstances might very well make it impossible to do such a thing even for those who wanted to unplug twice a month.

But if even if 10 percent of the population decided to turn off their power twice a month, it could go a long way toward fending off climate change.

We would be more likely to talk to each other, sing together, take long walks with friends and family.

Maybe you could just be alone with your own thoughts.

I think it safe to say that our politicians are not going to do anything about climate change anytime soon. But we, as decent people working together, could make a difference so easily by simply turning off the juice twice a month. If we all coordinated and did it on the same days, we could start a movement. Richard Carr, Rosendale