CAN I CALL THIS ADVENTURE, A LIFE CHANGING EVENT?

CAN I CALL THIS ADVENTURE, A LIFE CHANGING EVENT?

Although it didn’t capture the same media attention as the plight of the Thailand boys’ soccer team that had been trapped in a dark cave, I was recently involved in a similarly frightening event. We were in Mexico with friends and we experienced a local power failure. In my pioneer days as a child, having the lights and power go off unexpectedly was a fairly regular occurrence. I must admit, however, that this time it was quite a different experience. 

We had just returned home from dinner about 6 pm and found that the power was off in our condo and in the surrounding neighbourhood. Since it was still twilight, we were able to locate a couple of candles and also two flashlights, so we were not completely in the dark. Then the real challenge began. What were we going to do?

As the darkness descended, we realized that without access to electricity we also had no access to the Internet or television and without lights could not just sit patiently and read a book. We could not use our collective computers, iPads, iPhones or any Internet compatible technology. It seemed as if we might be actually faced with the prospect of just basking in the glow of candle light and actually conversing with one another. What a novel concept!. We chatted for a half an hour and then our acquired addictions and our inability to use our varied technologies caused us all to begin to perspire and tremble from withdrawal. 

Fortunately, one of our group had wisely downloaded a number of word games that we could access and play in the dark. She had also made sure that her iPad had been completely charged and thus we were spared the uncomfortable task of having to work at meaningful conversation. We played a game similar to Jeopardy and all participated in the candlelight activity. Once during the game the lights flickered for a split second to give us a cause for optimism, but they quickly went out and we were again bathed in darkness.

We played our downloaded game for over an hour and then the power suddenly returned to our quiet modern condo and we were liberated from the chains that had been imposed upon our behaviour by the electrical failure. Within seconds, all four of us knew what to do. Al grabbed his iPhone to return messages, Gail grabbed her iPad and accessed her on online e-Book, Dar turned on her computer and began working on a puzzle, and I, of course, raced to my computer to blog about our exciting power failure adventure. 

We had successfully navigated our way through this potentially dangerous time. We had survived the outage, spent over two hours without listening to music, reading, watching television, or playing on any of our computer based technology. We maintained our sanity and I do believe that in the end, we emerged just as the twelve boys trapped in the cave in Thailand did, as better and more resilient people. I am so proud of our achievement! I just pray that it doesn’t spawn a lengthy period of nightmares and flashbacks! I understand that dangerous life changing events can do that.