Do you turn on the light when you wake up at night to go to the bathroom? Why it matters.
One of the more common line of questions people ask me when they learn I disconnected my apartment from the electric grid is what I do for light.
Before I share what I share with them, if you’re curious, you can find out easily: don’t turn your lights on this evening. If you do the simple task of not dying, you’ll find an answer. I’m no do-it-yourselfer. If you just don’t die, you’ll find more relevant answers for yourself than whatever I say. The more nights you do it, the more answers you’ll find. Some nights you might talk with your family more. Others you might go out to volunteer. Others you might go to sleep earlier or meditate. You might post to your blog, as I’m doing now at 10:30pm.
Moreover, the longer you do it, I predict the more you’ll find rewarding activities that develop and grow you the opposite ways that watching TV and doom scrolling numb and diminish you. You’ll connect with others the opposite of ways consuming power isolates. You’ll learn humility to nature, stewardship, and sustainability over entitlement, waste, and destruction.
The Bathroom Light
I respond to people’s questions about lighting up at night with a question back. I thought I knew the answer. I ask “When you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, do you turn the light on?“
I thought for sure people would say no. I don’t turn the bathroom light on at night because it would wake me up more and I want to fall asleep faster. Plus I prefer not to waste energy that would hurt people.
It turns out most people I ask do turn lights on when they go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, though I haven’t tracked the numbers rigorously.
The response connects to my concern about sustainability. In fields that can be mastered, like performance arts, sports, and leadership, details matter. They are where the art is. As the great dancer Martha Graham put it: “Either the foot is pointed or it is not. No amount of dreaming will point it for you.” In a big dance performance, how much do one dancer’s toes matter? Everything.
If we want sustainability, on the issue of not turning on lights when doing so creates no benefit, the amount of energy saved isn’t the point. It’s our mindsets. I’m not saying saving a few watts matters. I’m saying attention to detail does, as does loving neighbors who would suffer from your pollution and depletion as yourself.
I point out to people I talk to about it that I’m very skilled at going to the bathroom. I’ve done it multiple times every day of my life. Obviously they have too. You don’t need to turn on the lights then.
The Big Results
If you learn to make do without lights then, you’ll find other times to make do without them, or without a TV, toaster, stove, car, plane, and so on. You’ll learn to enjoy life more, not less, because everything something does for you deprives you of doing it yourself and the learning that comes with it.

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