power outage March 26, 2012
It’s the Fourth of July, 2011. I am in Last Chance, Idaho, close to Yellowstone National Park and on the back side of the Grand Tetons, fly fishing with my dad, my brother, my college roommate from Louisiana, and former Belmont Hill headmaster and close friend Chris Wadsworth. It’s our last full day of fishing, and under a bright sun we have been wading a lower stretch of the Henry’s Fork. We have not seen a lot of rising fish, but we have seen an amazing mayfly hatch and have enjoyed good company and the remarkable scenery—and I even managed to catch a good fish that day. Now, as we head back to town—essentially three fly shops, two bars, one convenience store, and a gas station—we pull into TroutHunter, a fly shop that doubles as a restaurant, for their Fourth of July pig roast. We sit out back, on their porch at the edge of the river, enjoy the food…and watch the sky darken—no, blacken. Out west, you can watch storms as they come—it really is big sky country. Through a “V” in the mountains, we look to the west as the storm approaches. The winds pick up, the temperature starts to drop, and soon we all push inside, for huge rain and wind are blowing everything around. In fact, within minutes the rain is mixed with hail. Soon, not surprisingly, the lights go out. We are inside, dry and warm. Yes, the power is out, but someone will fix it. And it is that “someone will fix it” that I want to talk about today. Last July we were on vacation; we were in no hurry; we fish for fun—indeed, we practice what is called “catch and release”—we do not fish for food or survival. But what if we did? Or what if we needed power because we had work to do? What would we do then if the power went out? Our daily lives are full of unconscious dependency, of expectations that things will work. What happens when you or your parents are driving and your car breaks down? Most of us have to depend on others for assistance. Even if we face something as simple as a flat tire, what happens? I heard someone recently brag that he can fix a tire with one finger: He dials AAA. The reality is that many people are unable, or unwilling, to change a tire. What do many of us do if we are hungry? We call for takeout or order food in or microwave something from the freezer. I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with these solutions, but I would suggest that our world has changed in some profound ways in the last 50 or so years, and those changes push us to think about what skills may be important. You younger students have never lived in a world without a GPS. How do you find your way to a new destination? Plug in the address and follow the computer’s instructions. Yet I am
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