A little adversity

I know one thing that could stop your life. I mean, it could certainly stop mine; it would at least slow your life down. That thing is simple, and something you probably don’t think about too often: power. It’s easy to forget about it; that is, until it’s out at 10 p.m. on Sunday and you can’t see a thing in your hotel room. I don’t want to make this sound more dramatic than it is. We went through a power outage for two hours — we didn’t go without water for two days or without a new Frank Ocean album for almost four years (oh, wait). But, have a little sympathy: it’s hard to function without power. Let’s start with the fact that the wi-fi is out, so, in most cases, especially for journalists, you can’t work. You can’t shower, and even if you want to use the the restroom, you have to turn on your flashlight on your iPhone. You can’t turn on the TV. You can’t prepare for sports check without using data on your phone. Oh yeah, and that little device you use for everything, especially when the power goes out? You can’t charge it. You could go to bed, but if the power isn’t on, your phone might die, and your alarm might not go off. Look, there are a whole lot of things in this world worse than the power going out. A whole lot. But maybe the power of, well, power gets forgotten a lot. And you only remember how much you rely on it until it goes dark and the hotel staff is lighting candles in the lobby like it’s 1770. -- Christian Hardy