Today we began what is to be known as “The Great Experiment.” Or, according to our youngest, “The Very Bored Experiment.”
It started at lunch. We began a discussion at the dinner table about what our life would be like without electricity – no TV, no video games, no lights, no microwave, no computer, no electronics of any kind. What would we do?
So, we decided to try it for one week and see what happened. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the “rules” of our experiment. We decided that there was really no way to go completely cold turkey – there are some things where the old technology simply does not exist in our home anymore or things that would make our lives unnecessarily difficult (i.e. cooking on the stove, typing, researching, task lighting). But there are other electronic things that simply serve as life clutter (i.e. electronic games, TV and lighting for the purpose of turning night into day.) We did, also, decide that music is allowed in any of its electronic forms because music feeds the soul.
At first, the boys were pretty excited. We got home and changed and began our normal routines. Mine – watching a little TV while my husband naps – was slightly disrupted, but not horribly. I visited the library and had some quiet time on the couch while the boys played outside with their toys. But after an hour or so of that, they were back inside.
“Mom, I’m bored,” said the seven-year-old slumping in the chair across from me. The ten-year-old, meanwhile, sat head first in the other chair performing a perfect, suspended somersault with his rear and sock feet out for the world to see.
“Well,” I said seriously, “I can think of something for you both to do.”
“What?” they said.
“Your homework.”
I also made a new rule. This rule was that anyone who said they were bored would be given a chore that they would have to perform. I asked them to confirm that they had heard me.
“I never said I was bored, mom,” the rear and socks clarified quickly.
And then they disappeared. Ha-ha! Peace in the living room again.
Things got interesting as dinner approached. We took our food and homework to the patio because we discovered that the house is actually darker inside than it is outside in the evening. We ate and talked and finished homework and then picked up our dishes and put them away in the candlelit kitchen.
After that, we retired to the living room and listened to our youngest practice the piano by lantern light. My husband actually got out the guitar and joined him in playing “Ring Around the Rosy.” Following the performance, my oldest and I played “spell and catch” with his spelling words while the youngest and dad did a little cleaning and organizing. After that we all gathered in the living room to read, draw and write.
As this evening draws to a close, I will say that I am enjoying the ambiance created by the candles and lantern light. And I am REALLY enjoying the silence punctuated only by the waterfall in the backyard, the frogs, the cricket and the occasional distant vehicle noise that seeps through the trees of our quiet, little cul-de-sac.
To be continued….
