Unless of course you are savvy enough to know where to look. Then the footprint is ubiquitous: every room in my house has outlets standing ready to fuel all manner of appliances. But does that mean I can see electricity, or only what it does?

 

One quality that makes electricity desirable is dependability. I plug in my toaster and it crisps the bread. This happens regardless of the time of day or night, or the number of children begging for breakfast. I admit that there can be snafus when I am simultaneously toasting, grilling, microwaving, illuminating, sewing, blending and ironing, but 362 days a year it works.

Marriage love is invisible too. Oh, there is a palpable zap at the wedding. The ceremony I went to last weekend had enough voltage to warm up and illuminate the hundred plus people there. But there were watts at work in the other couples present too, like the two sets of parents in the front row. Those dear folks sat arm in arm, charged with their own luminosity, sharing tissues.

 

Most eyes were on the bride and groom, who did offer up a streak of brilliance worth traveling from Chicago to witness, as my son did.