Sometimes I get serious here. So I’ll spare you the mouse update except to say that the thing that was clogging the drain in the wash basin this weekend wasn’t lint.
As I write I’m listening to Ideas on CBC Radio. Tonight’s program features Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist being called “the rightful heir to Thomas Edison.” So of course my ears perked up. I do a lot of Edison bashing.
What got my attention was his confident assertion that solar power will supply all of humanity’s energy needs in 20 years. It’s the first time in months I’ve heard a positive perspective on the future. I’d like to have a more positive view of the future.
Occasionally when I speak to groups about Porchlight I share an anecdote about a conversation I had with Jasper one night as I was tucking him in to bed. He asked me why I spent so much time talking to people about light bulbs. It was late and I was tired, and I remember snapping back something like, “I’m trying to save the planet.”
I don’t remember how he reacted. But it was a kind of slap in my own face, a reminder that I was trying to do something meaningful. And so when I reflect on this during events or in media interviews, I can say that even if changing bulbs seems insignificant, I know that in 20 years when my kids ask me “What did You do to change things, Dad?” I will have an answer. I tried.
Now tonight I’m thinking that the question might be, “Dad, why were you so worried?”
And we’d have a good laugh about the bulbs. And open another cold one in the clean, cool woods of central PEI. Safe.
