Under
the cabinets in my kitchen are a couple of those touch lights.
You
probably know the ones I mean. Usually round, maybe three inches
across, and commonly run by batteries. They use sticky tape or
screws to be set up in virtually any location you might want extra
light but really don’t have the time, desire or ease of running
new electrical supplies into. Sheds, closets and so on.
I
have literally never turned them on. Might be no batteries in
them. Might be batteries that don’t work in them. Might be a hidden
wire I don’t know about involved (which if I did know about it
might explain some of the other issues I’ve been dealing with
since we moved in).
Point
is, they’re there, and I just never think about them.
Only
time I even notice them is perhaps once every two or three years,
when I glance toward one particular cabinet while climbing up
the stairs from the basement. I get to see the bottoms of the
cabinets from that view. In fact, as I think about it, I’ve seen
them twice. Both times coming to the same thought: “Hey, those
look like battery powered lights. How come I never saw those before?”
You
may be wondering why I would say the same thing about the same
light twice. Answer actually comes from the main bathroom of the
house. In there, under the medicine cabinet and above the counter,
are three of these disk lights. I spotted them one day while cleaning
the bathroom floor. Then immediately forgot they existed until
I began writing this essay. Insert here joke about getting old,
forgetting things, and ending up confused.
Point
is, they’re there, and I just never think about them.
Have
you ever seen those posts on social media feeds where people say
something about a product’s design or a common phrase or whatever,
with the intention being to stun you by providing information?
A hidden symbol in a company’s logo… a term that’s so old the
original meaning was forgotten, but once explained it seems to
make sense… a takeout food package that can be flipped around
in five or six moves to turn into a picnic table with plates,
utensils and seating for six… you know the ones I mean.
I
hate those.
I
admit, some of them I chuckle about because everyone knew that
item that apparently mystified this one particular genius. Some
of them I shrug my shoulders at because no one cares. But mostly…
I just hate them.
Why?
The
light under the cabinet idea.
I’ve
been making my way through the dark corners of my kitchen for
years without this information. I’ll be making my way through
the dark corners of my kitchen virtually every day in the future
without using this information. And, if it had been up to me and
really a major problem, solving this particular issue wouldn’t
have been something I approached with a discount store stick on
plastic light.
Years
ago, a friend of mine was bragging about the fuel gauge on his
car’s dashboard. He was trying to educate us about how it showed
which side of the car the cap was. He went on for days and days
about how we all needed to be paying attention to things like
this. Another friend burst his bubble. She pointed out that for
his car, it was just a coincidence. The reasoning is a long story
we need not go into right now… and yes, there are little arrows
that we are all becoming familiar with that point to which side
of the car we should put next to the gas pump before getting out
to refuel… but the reality, as she pointed out, didn’t matter.
After showing him the thought was wrong to apply to all cars,
she also pointed out the thought was right for his car. On his
car, that picture did show him where the cap was.
Often,
it’s about habits and personal preferences and, to be honest,
the coincidences that stick with us. So as long as the information
and solutions work for us, in many cases if it’s not going to
change the world, it really doesn’t matter how it gets set up.
They’re
there. I just never think about them.