Earth Hour 2010, Get Others Involved

I've participated in Earth Hour for three years straight, and every year I try to top the year before that. The first year I unplugged everything and used my computer battery, without keeping the computer plugged, as entertainment for my hour in the dark. I talked to a fellow "The Boondocks" online buddy to pass time. I was so busy talking to him that three hours passed, and I didn't even know it.

The second year I decided I didn't even want to use the power from my computer. I unplugged everything, turned off all the lights, lit candles and laid on my living room floor to write in my journal. I was so engrossed in what I was writing that I stayed that way for two hours.

All week I'd been trying to find a new way to celebrate Earth Hour 2010 with an even bigger effect. Then I realized the best way to help save the planet is to get other's involved. After my mother and I enjoyed hanging out at Quench! restaurant and seeing the Freedom Sister's exhibit, we came back to my childhood home, and I convinced my mother and my father to participate with me.

They both shrugged and said, "Why not?" What my mother realized was that although she was prepared for a blackout with all of these cute oil candles, she'd never taken the time to unwrap them or pry the caps off. While she was fidgeting with them and trying to pry the tops away from the wicks, I said, "Let me just ask you a question." Then I turned off the lights and asked her to pry them off in the dark with the same screwdriver she was instructed to use. A lightbulb went off in her head just how unprepared she really was, outside of knowing where a couple of flashlights were. Using a screwdriver in the dark is not an easy task.

My father joked, "When I get to work on Monday and my co-workers ask me what'd I do this weekend, I'll have to say my daughter told me I couldn't watch TV but I could go to my room." He was quite the comedian about Earth Hour, but he went around turning off lights while I unplugged everything in the house that wasn't being used.

They both shouted at me to leave the refrigerator alone, which of course I planned on doing anyway, but I snuck and unplugged a few more things they didn't know about like their alarm clocks, the coffeepot, the computer and all the TVs and DVRs.

And then came darkness. Now being in a family of unpaid comedians, my parents had major jokes about sitting in the dark so the first 10 minutes was us making fun of each other. My mother decided she wanted to lift weights, and I could see my father staring quizzically at her while she shook the hell out of her Shake Weight®. My father set his watch and kept making it glow in the dark to let me know he could tell when it was time to turn the lights on. We talked about politics, school and I found out some interesting things about their wedding day, and after about 20 minutes I could hear them dozing off.

I grabbed a flashlight, opened a book I'm reading called "Elemental Love Styles" by Dr. Craig Martin for my Chicago Relationships Examiner page and dived into the book. At 9:30 p.m., my father jumped up and ran to their bedroom to finish watching some random show and demanded that I reset his coffee pot and "old school alarm clock that you shouldn't have unplugged." Oh, the priorities!

My mother woke up long enough to tell me "Lincoln Heights," "The Mo'Nique Show" and "90210" better still be set on her DVR player. I just laughed at their grumbling and went around plugging everything back up.

I asked them what did they get out of this experience with Earth Hour 2010.

Their responses:

"My favorite part was laying on the couch yapping with my daughter," said my mother. "If she hadn't've been over here, we wouldn't have participated."

"My favorite part of Earth Hour was sitting in the dark listening to you rationalize Earth Hour," said my father. "It was fun hanging out yesterday."

Whether they got the point of Earth Hour 2010 or not-and I made sure to send them news links to all of the countries in the world that participated-the fact is I got them to participate. When I was leaving, they told me they're changing the locks in 2011, but I'll be back!