Earth Hour: How did it go? What did you learn?

I had some moments of panic when I got an email two hours prior to Earth Hour from a local broadcast news reporter -- wanting to come over with a camera and do a story on a Portland family participating in Earth Hour. You know that feeling? Oh man. My house is a mess. Hair = bad hair day. What exactly are the kids wearing? Would they be an utter train-wreck if I pushed them to stay awake until 8:30pm and beyond? (In answer to those questions: crazy kid-selected ensembles and undoubtedly two big train-wrecks). I did call her back, and was grateful when it rolled to voicemail. She never called me back. Whew!

We ended up rescheduling Earth Hour a bit earlier to suit my kids' bedtime. So as it got dark, we talked about how some people can't just turn on a light at the flip of a switch, and if they haven't already finished their homework, or got their jammies on, or their teeth brushed, they may have a hard time finding all the necessaries in the dark (as I can attest -- black PJs in the dark were playing hide-n-go-seek with me). We read a few stories by candle-light, which turned out to be a challenge. We ended up telling more stories than we read, which was a big hit. We talked about how candles might not always be an option if you had a choice between buying candles and feeding your family. We talked about how we have an abundance of choices and luxuries in our lives that we often take for granted. The kids liked the idea of playing guitar and singing in the dark, or playing board games with natural or candlelight, and unplugging from some of the electrical playthings of modern life (PBSKids.org, iPods, books on tape, battery-powered toys, etc.).

After getting the kids in bed via candlelight, I took the candles to my room to read in bed. Turned out to be fairly hard, as the light was dim and the flame flickered every time I breathed. When the real Earth Hour arrived at 8:30pm, I looked out my bedroom window and hoped to see sheer magical darkness, but was disappointed. I saw one or two dark houses -- but was unsure if they were participating in Earth Hour, just not home or already asleep.

I read a few blogs that were down on Earth Hour -- saying it didn't mean anything. Turn off the lights for one hour. Then turn them back on. Big whoop. True. It could go that way. Or it could be that baby step that opens more eyes, and leads more people to join the green army. I did see that a friend of a friend (on Facebook) liked it so much that she plans to do Earth Hour every night now! Did you participate in Earth Hour? What did you learn?