When I look out my kitchen window in the evening, or even in the middle of the night when I sometimes get out of bed for a snack, I can see a light in the upstairs window of a neighbour’s house behind us and a few doors down.
I don’t know why, but that light gives me comfort.
The light shines through a green curtain, so it isn’t vivid; it’s nice and soft. I think it might be coming from a kitchen, maybe a light over a stove (this is an upstairs apartment in a house, the first floor is a business office.)
I don’t know who lives there. I’ve never seen anyone in the window and don’t expect I ever will. Still, just knowing that light is there makes me feel good. All is right with the world.
In the winter, when I am watering the backyard skating rink at 3 a.m., I glance up at the light and feel warm, despite the cold.
Once in a while, sometimes on weekends, I look out my window to see the light is not on and strangely enough, I feel slightly ill at ease. I assume whoever lives there has gone away for the weekend.
I don’t know where this comes from, this need for this kind of comfort. Maybe it’s a leftover thing from my early days on the farm when houses seemed so far apart and a yard light or light from a window was nice to see.
Or maybe it’s a caveman thing – the light from a fire would keep the predators away at night. People have often compared me to a caveman.
I just hope my neighbour doesn’t move out some day and is replaced by an energy-saving tenant who prefers to live in the dark.
My obsession with artificial light is something I have fully embraced inside our home, as well. A quick look around might cause a visitor to wonder if Lamps ‘R’ Us had gone out of business and I bought out the store. There are lamps on top of lamps and some of them are in unoccupied rooms of the house and serve no actual purpose except to cheer me up if I happen to wander into one of those rooms.
The invention of low wattage LED bulbs has fed my addiction as I don’t feel too guilty about burning the midnight oil. However, I live with some energy-efficient killjoys who seem to delight in extinguishing my omnipresent illumination need.
I have a long list of excuses I hope will reduce the resistance of my family members but none of them ever work very well. My favourite pro-lamp argument is that I leave these lamps on so our old cat can find his way around. My family counters that cats can see in the dark but now and then I run across an article refuting that old notion and I immediately try to get these others to change their view.
“How many lamp haters does it take to kill a light bulb?” is a persistent question. That age-old mystery doesn’t seem to have an answer, at least not in my home.
Perhaps I will use some of the money the lamp extinguishers are saving us to go for some counselling.
But there are a few important basics in life that shouldn’t be ignored. We need good food, fresh water, breathable air …
And, I would argue, lots and lots of lamps.
Besides, counsellors’ offices I’ve been in, and I’ve seen the inside of a few, always have low lighting on, even during the day. I assume the lights are there to calm down the clients.
I rest my case, your honour.
©2011 Jim Hagarty
