NOTES ON THE ENERGY CRISIS
Do you remember what it was like before air conditioning? We had an attic fan that cooled our house at night. As I got older there was a window fan in my bedroom. And there was a space heater that had to be lit in the morning in the winter. We survived just fine. The times we felt were hardships were when we visited my grandfather near Anderson. It was always colder there and there was no heat at all in the room where we slept. There was always a stack of blankets and quilts on the bed in that room. It was cold when you got up (or turned over) but we made it just fine.
Do you remember a time when everyone did not have a car? We always had more vehicles that most people because my father had a couple of trucks and a VW that he used in his landscape business. But the kids didn’t have cars. We got along.
One of the images I still remember was my mother’s closet after she died. I never realized she had so few clothes. She always said she would rather have a few nice things than many not so nice things.
We have so much now, don’t we? Most nights there are two televisions on in my house. Tisha and I don’t like to watch the same things. Of course, we also occasionally turn on the computer while the TVs are on to check e-mail or something. I think I am most aware of how much we have when I am talking on the telephone while checking something on the internet and my cell phone rings.
Of course, all this stuff (these extra clothes, TVs, computers, cars, cell phones, bigger houses, etc.) takes more time and energy and resources. Sometimes it makes our lives better but often it just makes us busier and more harried.
We are all worried about the current energy situation in our world. We have always known that if the Chinese tried to live like we do then there would be a crisis in the world. Well, that is exactly what is happening. The Chinese, the Indians, the Brazilians, and others are trying to live like us…..and there is not enough. So we are worried and threatened. Our lifestyle is at risk.
Did you ever think that for some of us that might be a good thing? Maybe some of us would be better off with less stuff and a simpler life? Of course some people say they are already living with too little, and that is true. But for many of us….maybe this is an opportunity to live a simpler and happier life. The beatitudes tell us that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” Simple is good. Perhaps if we have less we will appreciate it more. Possibly there is an up side to all this. Of course people don’t think this way who have lost their job or their home, but in the greater scheme of things…… the economy isn’t God, and the best life is not the life with the most possessions. The current confusion can help us see that a simpler life can be a better life. Remember the story Jesus told about the son who took his inheritance and squandered it on riotous living…and ended up miserable?
Remember the words of George Burns in that great movie “O God,” He said “I still have a plan. It can still work.”
Jerry M. James
