A Brief Blackout and the Glories of Bluefield

It came without warning last night. And it couldn't have come at a worst time (unless you are a Denver Broncos fan). With just a few short minutes left in last night's Super Bowl the light's in Bluefield College's Student Activities Center went out. Nothing left but emergency lights. People file outside to see what the rest of campus is like, and most of campus is dark as well. In fact, much of Bluefield, WV was dark. A few thousand were without power, and thus began the brief run of Blackout '14.

A blackout can be a serious situation for many people, but I have to admit, I enjoyed reminiscing about past power outages with my parents and brother, playing games by candlelight. And there was something almost peaceful about heading back home through a mostly dark town.

As mentioned above, though, Blackout '14 was brief. Whatever the equipment failure, it was soon corrected and thousands of Mercer Co. residents were brought back to the light.

It's easy to gloss over things like this and move on to whatever is next in our lives. The blackout is over. Lights are on. What's next? Please, pardon me for being a little idealistic, but let's look at this as opportunity to feel good about where we live.

1) We have electricity to lose in the first place. Not much needs to be said about this. So many in the world are without reliable electricity. It really is a blessing I take for granted.

2) My experience during the short time I've lived here has been, all things considered, things like power outages and snow covered roads are taken care of rather quickly. Imagine if a power outage, for any reason, automatically meant days of lost power for thousands of people? Imagine if just a couple inches of snow meant that roads wouldn't be clear until the snow finally melted?

I can sometimes be an optimist to a fault, but let's remember to feel good about our town. Let's remember to feel good about what our community offers us. Grateful people will eventually lead to great cities.