Access to wire delivered resources has become a major issue in many remote communities in Canada.  In much of the two-thirds world, patience with access to power has faded.  There is visual evidence, no matter which continent you visit, that demand to resources and access overrides planning and goodwill.

Electricity has become like food, shelter and water.  A few years ago we paused in Sierra Leone and spent time in a community with no electricity and no running water.  It became evident that even the preponderance of NGO’s was unable to bridge this basic gap.  Homelessness in inner cities has received massive capital infusions, yet continues to grow.  There is an innate human desire for connection.  Cain was angry that his offering did not connect the way Able’s did.  The desperation of disconnection is a mark of our human condition.  That wire dangling without application of electrical code bypassed the rules to deliver light to those who sit in darkness.

The global experience of covid and the social disconnection caused by social distancing, school closings and under-employment has made stay at home isolation a moment of opportunity for those with Internet access.  Those without access created their own wiring grid.  They got connected because connection was essential to education and survival.

Children have a way of letting the light in.  It is a miracle of human ingenuity that the desire for connection overrides the obstacles of economics and power.  We are living in a world driven by Cain’s desperation for connection.  Each creature craves connection and is driven to desperation in its absence. Recovery of persons with addiction requires connection.  The creativity of that journey creates community where none were imagined by governments, institutions and pill pushers. That may be true for all of us.