Can an Unexpectedly High Energy Bill Change Lives for the Better?

Were we spoiled? Maybe. But — sometimes — a little bit of adversity is an opportunity to make changes.

Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD
5 min readOct 21, 2022

Photo courtesy of author

Some of my earliest and strongest memories are of sitting around the coal heater in the living room of my grandparents’ home. The stories. The discussion. The laughter. The food. The coziness. Even the antiquated boardgames.

All the advantages and comforts of an analog world, without any of the distractions that bedevil us now. It was — most definitely — the best of times.

And yet, nostalgia and the distance of half a lifetime can easily play tricks on the memory. Maybe the reality was different from how I want to remember it.

Take the coziness. My grandparents’ house was built in the early 1900s. Proper insulation wasn’t a thing back then. The house was a combination of too hot and too cold. And, whereas for my parents’ generation, the television was the focal point of the living room and family life, for my grandparents, it was the coal heater.

So, when I was close to the heater, it was too hot — suffocating almost. And I am not talking about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. The side of your body that faced the heater was uncomfortably warm. The other…

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Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD
Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD

Written by Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD

Where Gen X memories meet today’s struggles.

Responses (1)

What are your thoughts?

I'm reading so much of what I've been currently thinking in your articles. I love it. This one is awesome. Quit complaining about the situation, find a way to make it work and in doing so make yourself better! I think I'm going to try dropping the heat.