Electricity

In one of my secretarial, administrative, clerical, receptive and customer service money making "schemes", I was a word processing operator. When one of my colleagues found out that I come from Lebanon, she came over, sat beside me and generally wanted to make me feel welcome. She said she had Syrian and Lebanese friends but she never understood why we turn all the lights on in our homes. She thought it was odd that we would turn on all the lights. I had never thought of this as odd but now that she told me this, I realized it is true because here in America, the lights in homes are not lit full force. Usually they are found in corners or on side tables. Even I had adopted this way of lighting without realizing it. I still live like that and mom thinks I live in darkness. She likes everything lit especially when guests are expected. All rooms, all lights, turned on maximum. The apartment is lit. We are generous with our guests. We don't spare them anything. And probably, we want them to see how spotless our home is. Nothing out of place, everything shiny and dust-free, see? And our smiles should be out there in full view for our guests to see how happy we are to honor them and to be honored by them.

This must have started when electricity was invented. We have electricity, lights, let's turn them on, everywhere, even our chandeliers are now electric, let's turn them on too. We have electricity. And it became a way to show off, then a habit, a custom, and now I find it oppressive.
Have you been to Times Square at night? If yes, have you tried to stand there for more than a minute? I rest my case. In my case, in the one that is resting, there is age, thus the frequency of rests, but that has given me the chance to reevaluate the matter of energy consumption.