Lights, aren’t they magical?When I was a kid I wasn’t tall enough to reach the Light switch and that was pretty frustrating for me because most of the kids my age could. So every time I had the chance; I looked for a bench, dragged it till the light switch, climbed on it so I could finally turn on the light by myself. The other option was to jump several times until my fingers could reach it. It was routine for the rest of the people, but for me it was something special.
Soon after and thankfully, I grew up and the whole act of turning on the lights stopped being an exciting game to become part of my routine, same as washing my teeth. I never thought about that again until now, 20 years or more later, when the president of the electricity company (which now belongs to the government) announce a very strict plan to save energy.
It goes like this: in Caracas, my city, people will run out of electricity for four hours a day, three or four days a week until May at least. Given the inefficiency which characterizes this government, we are afraid that this measure might last forever. The city has been divided in six “blocks” or so. Also, a document has been published giving specifications of which area belongs to which “block”. But in the document some areas have been also subdivided into “zones” so it’s hard to know in which block you are exactly. I read it all and I still don’t know when I will have a blackout at home.
While I’m preparing a longer and more detailed entry about this and other events and the consequences they might have or they are having right now for my life; all I can think is that I feel similar than when I was too short to reach the light switch. I so feel little and insignificant again.
The Revolution, for a while now, has installed a light switch that I’m too short to reach. My fingers cannot press it and turn on the light bulb of my freedom, of my civil rights, of my dreams and expectations, of my tranquility. It doesn’t matter the benches I drag, or how high I jump; I’m too short to reach it. I can’t.
PS: The image which accompanies this entry was taken from HERE. No copyright infringement intended
