Building community due to power outage

Yesterday we had an interesting experience. I was looking forward to an evening on the couch first to hear what the president had to say about jobs and then watching a good football game. But at 3:40, our entire county lost power. It had been in the upper 90s, so the house quickly got too hot.

So we headed outside to beat the heat, and interestingly enough, all of our neighbors did as well. The kids played outside until it got too dark to see, we enjoyed a picnic dinner on our lawn, and we chatted with neighbors and shared melting popsicles as we watched the kids on their bikes.

We've lived on this street for 9 years now, and I think I spoke more last night with some of my neighbors than I ever had before.

After we put the kids to bed, we noticed the moon was pretty bright, so Jenetta and I sat on the back deck and just talked for two hours. It was great!

Without TV or the internet to distract us or feed that sense of "connection," we got it for real - the way people have for hundreds and thousands of years, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Maybe the power should go out more often!