30 Days of Thankfulness- Electricity

Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to several million homes along the east coast of the US recently. We weren't really affected by the storm, but we did lose our electricity for a few days back in 2009 when Hurricane Ike brought crazy winds to the landlocked state of Kentucky. Electricity is another one of those things we seriously take for granted. I was reminded of this whenever I logged into my twitter account the first five or six days after Sandy hit. I saw a lot of posts regarding the loss of electricity, particularly in New York. I guess it's because I follow a lot of celebrities. Those who weren't affected by the storm retweeted stuff from people who were affected. The majority of the electricity-related posts I saw during this time were about the most trivial things. When we lose power, our lives are affected in big ways. We can't charge our cell phones, turn on the air conditioning or the heat, use the lights, cook in our kitchens, and other big-impact stuff. But we also can't turn on our computers to shop online, or piddle around on the internet, or watch our favorite shows. By far, I saw more posts about that latter category than the first. When Ike came through my area, I remember a coworker had to bring her physically disabled daughter to work so she could charge her wheelchair in our meeting room. That's important. Cable tv? Not so much. I saw more posts complaining about missing tv shows than I did from people worrying about what they were having for dinner that night. It was weird.

Anyway, I am thankful for electricity. I use it every day, and often. I am thankful that I can charge my cell phone, because it's basically my only contact with the outside world (we do not have a landline, as we deemed it too expensive about a year ago.) I am thankful I can get on my computer in the morning and check the news, since we don't have TV or a newspaper subscription. I'm thankful I can turn on the lights in my bathroom when I get up feeling icky in the middle of the night. I'm thankful that I don't need to use a motorized wheelchair or other important, electricity-charged medical equipment. I'm thankful I can safely store my food in the refrigerator, and that I have a microwave for my heating pad (I'd die without it, seriously.)

If you look at a graph showing how much electricity everyone in the world uses, the United States would account for 20% of that. And yet, the United States accounts for about 5% of the world's population. Sheesh. I read recently that over 1 billion people in the world don't have access to electricity or modern forms of energy. When I wrote to my sponsor kids recently about Hurricane Sandy (they worry about me here in the US when they hear news reports of bad weather, just like I worry about them), I felt weird telling them that so many people lost their electricity. I have never heard any of my kids say anything about electricity, except one time in a letter from Jayid, he said they have power "sometimes."

I am thankful that I live in a country that has such easy access to energy. I do wish that we were more responsible about our energy consumption. Maybe if more people knew how our homes are powered, and how that affects the world around us, we'd be better about how much electricity we use. But I am thankful for the conveniences I have, and I am praying for those people who are still without power along the east coast- the lack of electricity has led to many people using generators and grills in their homes, which is sickening and killing people. Be smart, folks!