Billy Coffey
Billy Coffey

Getting Unplugged

January 20, 2009  

My sanity has become the latest casualty in my family’s war against the electric bill. My wife has taken to unplugging things. Lamps seem to be her favorite targets. Also the toaster, the coffee maker, and the chargers for our cell phones. If it has a cord, it’s getting yanked.

The idea behind this seemingly crazed notion came by way of Oprah, who recently had a guest who stated that even if an appliance is turned off, it continues to use a small amount of electricity if it is plugged into an outlet. Simply unplugging things when not in use can reduce your electricity bill by as much as 20 percent over a year’s time.

Which was all my wife needed to hear.

This has been going on for weeks now, and I still can’t get used to it. I’m turning on lamps and wondering why they’re not working. I’m making toast and coffee and standing there like an idiot when nothing happens. And my cell phone died the other day because I neglected to notice the cord was unplugged when I charged it the night before.

So I began to wonder: is this worth me running around the house like a bumbling idiot? Worth the hassle of fumbling around in the dark trying to plug in a lamp? Worth shaking and smacking the toaster only to have the kids say, “For cryin’ out Daddy, just plug it in?”

I wasn’t sure.

So I decided to do a little digging myself. After all, Oprah has been wrong before.

As it turns out, her guest was right. Things plugged into outlets do indeed continue to use power when they have been turned off. And you can indeed save up to 20 percent on your electric bill.

Leaking electricity, as it is known. There are also other, fancier sounding synonyms like Phantom Load. Or this one, the most insidious: Vampire Power.

But I suppose it makes sense, really.

Like most people, I was once upon a time obsessed with how other people saw me. Did they like me? If yes, how much? If not, why? Was there something I could do or fix to convince them I was a good person?

Sure, foolish questions. But ones most of us ask. I tired of trying to get everyone’s approval when I realized happiness lay in concerning myself only with what I could control. What other people thought of me? Not what I could control.

Then there was the brief obsession with having a career. To your average male, the quality of his life is intricately tied to his profession such that men often regard each other with a mental comma: Bob Simmons, banker. Tommy Sanders, supervisor. Me? I’ve been Billy Coffey, gas station attendant. Or Billy Coffey, factory worker. Not so special. And since there wasn’t anything special after my comma, I thought I wasn’t either.

Thankfully, faith fixed that for me. My job now is more what I do than who I am. I have something else after my comma now. Billy Coffey, child of God? I’ll take that any day.

And there was worry. I used to worry about everything. Big things like death and small things like if I would miss the bus home from school. Worry was the dark shadow in my life growing up, disappearing only when God’s love was shined upon it.

There are more. Many more. But my point is this: I thought I had gotten over all those things. That I had grown within, grown closer to God, so that those things I once obsessed about were no longer in my life. I was wrong, though. I’ve turned them off in my heart, thinking that was good enough. But it wasn’t. They’re still plugged in.

I still want to be liked. And to have a better job. And I continue to worry. And I still do all the other things I could have sworn I didn’t. Not anymore.

Vampire Power drains me, too.

It’s price is high. It costs my peace and my joy. It demands my attention. It places me in its debt. Not all at once, of course. Little by little. Weighing me down, sinking me in spiritual quicksand.

Why live like that? Why not just unplug it? Once and for all.

My wife’s on to something, I think.

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Filed under: doubt, emotions, living
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Comments

  • Dave

    Billy, my wife had told me about your blog a couple of months ago, and I’ve been visiting a couple of times a week since then. I just have to say that I love your insights on life. Keep it up, bro. We all love being along for the ride.

  • janelle

    I have spent many quiet moments wondering what others thought of me rather than focusing on my relationship with God; time I could have spent with him wasted.

    My prayer today for you, as well as everyone who reads this post, is that being a child of God is more than enough!

    Galatians 1:10

  • lynnrush

    Nice comparison, Billy. Our desire to be liked, have better job, etc….vampire power. Sucking the life out of us. Interesting.

    Despite being a child of God, I, too, struggle with wanting to be accepted. Not as much as I did years before…but a little.

    We’re human…can’t change that. All we can do is, like you said, try and unplug!

    Nice post.

  • Sockrma18

    Great post….AGAIN. And your wife….she’s a smart lady. Unplugging the lamps and toaster and coffee maker….seems silly but if it works, what the heck! And to see you shaking the toaster only to be corrected by your kiddos, priceless. :)

    Love the comparison….Vampire Power has a hold on me too. Will need to check where I can “unplug” and remember who I really am through Christ.

    Great job, my friend.

  • Chris Godfredsen

    For so long I was tied up in what followed the comma – thank God that he has filled in that blank for me.

    As always, so much of what you write is truth – things we pretty much all struggle with – but I pray that in midst of it all, more and more we realize that being His is all that matters.

    Grace and Peace!

  • God’s Not Finished With Us Yet…

    You’re such a good writer….each sentence I read of yours causes me to tilt my head just a little and go ‘Hmmmm, that’s a good point there…..’ And then I had to look around the house noticing all the lights and power that was on, then got up and turned off about 5 lights, but only unplugged two of them because the other 3 weren’t plug in’s, they were switches like for the hall and kitchen.

    Like Janelle, (and you), I too have spent times in life wondering how other’s viewed me, what their thoughts and input was of me, often wishing I was a fly on the wall wondering what they’d comment about me once I left the room.

    But after a long time of growth, maturity and God Almighty living in my body I have overcome a lot of those ‘wonderings’ and decided not to care anymore, at least most of the time. But it still creeps up on me, which I think you’re right; it’s normal for all of us from time to time.

    Great post! Loved it once again! :D You’re awesome, and even through your talent I always find myself chuckling out loud at your comical words in the beginning, until I get to the end and stop laughing, realizing how much truth is in your words of wisdom!

  • leslie

    I love it when someone can take everyday issues and relate them to our spiritual lives. Fantastic analogy today! Thanks for reminding me to “unplug”.

  • L.L. Barkat

    I read a really interesting article a few years back in, I think, The Economist. And it included this issue as part of the picture we need to attend to. The writer mentioned that it’s really a design issue and called on industry to make some fixes.

    In the meantime, poor Billy, eating cold toast and not knowing why. :)

  • Andra M.

    I think we all struggle with Vampire power drainage, and one I think we ignore too often. We get used to worrying and it takes (at least for me) a firm slap upside the head from God to wake me up.

    Now I need to go home and drive my own husband nutty (hee, hee).

    My prayer today for you, as well as everyone who reads this post, is that being a child of God is more than enough!

    Great prayer.

  • Amy Deardon

    Billy, I’m waiting for your book to come out because you are the most awesome writer! Really. What a great post, as indeed all of yours are.

    To the mundane Oprah-esque topic, I was unplugging the computer when not in use because I’d heard that computers gorge on electricity, until the family yelled at me that the battery wasn’t recharging. You can’t win.

  • Carol

    You are an amazing writer. It makes my posts look so small and ordinary, just like me I guess. I am 5 ft 2, not with eyes of blue, but I have been told I am bubbly and act much younger than my years. I love my job, I love my family and I love life. It took some years to get back to this point, but I feel so recharged and healthy after some better choices. Anyway, I did not have a very good student teaching experience, so I hope Kelly will have an especially good one! Thanks for visiting! Carol

  • katdish

    I think I already posted this comment, but the dog distracted me so I’m not sure it went through or not…

    Richard Pryor had this bit where he talks about his girlfriend leaving him. He said, “I don’t mind when a woman is leaving me, it’s when they tell you why. Forget that, just leave!” (He may have used another “f” word.)

    I’m like that when I make a mess of things. I just want to lay low and not face up to my mistakes. But that’s a cop out. If I don’t own up to my mistakes, then I am destined to repeat them. And if I’m afraid to try because I’m afraid to fail, then I’m not trusting that God is in control in the first place.

    Geez, Billy. Don’t you have any posts that don’t make me think so much?