“I take for granted …” that, as I step out of our bedroom into the dark living room and then into the kitchen, each light switch or lamp chain or knob when flipped, pulled, or turned will bring light; that when I adjust the thermostat to warm the house the furnace will turn on and blow warm air into the house; that the security system will turn on or off, as I wish, when I tell it to do so. All of these things are contingent on the availability of electricity – along with a variety of other integrated and integrating support systems. 

Such ‘switch’ manipulations are done unconsciously with a barely acknowledged ‘expectation’ that the desired result will occur. As occurred just now after I looked up and noted the house thermostat indicating a lower than expected temperature (until I realized it was pre-programmed, by me, to return to 70° at a particular time … I even made a sort of mental note after adjusting the ‘heat’ as I left the bedroom that I’d have to reset it after 0600); I opened the App that controls the thermostat from my iPhone and raised it to 73° (two degrees above the current temperature so,as to force the heat to come on), without having to leave the sofa.

Things ALL taken for granted.

Can we consider these ‘things taken for granted’ – and, here, ‘things’ are not necessarily just objects but can include processes – as sites of a potential tension between ready-to-hand (Zuhandenheit) and present-at-hand (Vorhandenheit)? That is, so long as ‘things taken for granted’ function as expected, yielding the expected results, they remain ready-to-hand for use by us, not unlike the hammer of Heidegger. And, it is only when we acknowledge that ‘things taken for granted’ are indeed taken for granted and could ‘fail’ our expectations, or the failure actually occurs – like the heat and lights for the house not responding to my ‘commands’, that we experience those things as present-at-hand, that is, we wonder at and about them and their relation to us.

When ‘things taken for granted’ fail us – as many of them eventually will, if only temporarily – we are forced to re-examine our ‘relationship’ with those things. 

We’ve had situations where the electricity ‘failed’ us. But it never failed for long (minutes to hours rather than days); and, it did eventually come back, much to our relief and comfort. A good stockpile of flashlights and sweaters, jackets, and blankets can mitigate an extended loss. Our gas fireplace works on a principle of thermoconductivity through its gas pilot such that it will continue to work despite a power failure throughout the house. We also have the beginnings of some sort of electrical independence: solar panels on the roof. But, to achieve full independence from the electrical grid, we still have to buy and have installed a battery system to provide power when the grid fails. Perhaps a small power source or generator is something we should consider, something to keep the iPhones charged, to power the refrigerator and freezer (so we do not lose the food we’ve set aside).