“Hey, Babe. The power is out, again.” If you’ve lived anywhere in Texas for the past four years, you’ve probably heard something like this before. In the extremes of weather, from Snow-pocalypse 2021 to recent waves of hailstorms, thunderstorms, and tornadoes with stressed power grids and overworked electricians, many have experienced power outing at the most inconvenient of times. And as our collective battery powered electronic devices race to their inevitable fate as paper weights, the Hunger Games begin.

Who is most equipped to withstand the inconvenience of sharing common space with people we proclaim we love but every now and again stands ten toes down on our nerves when our unique differences become socially intolerable?

Because it’s obvious that if there’s going to be peace in times of inconvenience and cyclical social unrest, MY perspective is the most appropriate for the situation.

In the end, the kids will have “figured out” a way to have most of their pre-power outage privileges revoked and the legislative branch of home governance at odds for how each party seeks to carry out the laws, I mean rules.

Which party should the kids listen to?

“Why don’t we have a say?I hate when the power goes out!“

This is what 2024 is starting to feel like.

It’s as if our social power grid does not have the capacity to empower all of our communities well.

Just like in 2016. And 2020. And…

It’s happening again.

Look around us. Look in us.

Peep the discourse in the barber and beauty shops, the podcasts and newscasts, Facebook and X (formally known as Twitter).

Which players exited stage left but sprinted back and demanded an encore? Which teams refuse to play by the rules and decided to take their balls and go home?

Which organizations and institutions have stood on business and then reneged like a bad hand of Spades?

International beefs*, political beefs, sports beefs, and rap beefs?

*Please do not mistake my shorthand for mischaracterization of the atrocities in Gaza, Congo, Ukraine and countless others currently ravaging our world.*

And while each of us may be ready to fill in the blanks of the questions above with assertions of blame and a defended dissertation to back, but if we are honest, we all part of the reason why it’s happening again.

Is it possible that we have quickly forgotten the trials endured, the pain caused, the division developed, the tears shed, the lives lost, the wounds received, the healing needed, the time it took…

It’s happening again.

But we can change the outcome if we’re willing. Willing to do what it takes to see humanity. All humanity. Willing to look inward at the ways each of us perpetuate, agitate, and irritate each other without cause or blame.

Kind of like when the lights have been off for a period beyond our capacity of self-reliance. After enough bickering and realizing we are all in the same unfortunate circumstance, we have learned to iron out our differences for the collective good. The sharing of snacks stashed away in our secret hiding spaces, laughing at funny stories of shared experiences from school and work, and discovering anew things that remind us how much we are alike. And loved. Just as we are.

We don’t have to allow fear, hate, uncertainty, and volatility to lure us back toward despair and division. When the laughter is at its loudest and our hearts at their fullest, we don’t have run back to our respective corners of the house when the power comes back on, abandoning our newfound joy in each others’ differences because we can “see” it more clearly.

We can share both in the joys of restored power and clarity of common humanity.

We can.

Unfortunately, I think we are in for a grid stressing, powerless Summer… and Fall too.