Switches

I recently learned something about myself. It annoys me, ever so slightly, to flip a switch down to turn a light on or up to turn one off. In my mind, up is on and down is off - it's even labeled that way on many switches. I guess I must have grown up in a place with mostly single-switch lights. Up equals on was engrained in me long ago.

As I mentioned, I only recently became aware that I cared about this. I think, in the past, I simply didn't use many switches that violated my Up=On code. My exposure to multi-switch lights was apparently mild enough that I never correlated it with any degree of annoyance or discomfort. I coped.

We remodeled our home about three years ago. I love many things about the new space. Our kitchen is bigger, we have a new family room and a nicer upstairs. We also have a multitude of multi-switch lights. I don't know if it's part of some insane building code or if our contractor or electrician was just really into them, but almost every new overhead light is controllable by more than one switch. The kitchen lights can be switched on and off from one of three locations. The door to our garage is near the door to the backyard. Each door has a switch next to it for controlling the light over the common entryway. The two switches are about four steps apart. The light in the entryway by our side door is also wired to two switches - if I stand midway between the switches I can reach both of them easily. It just feels like a little overkill. Our electricians were a father-son team and I sometimes wonder if all of this was just done to give junior some training. He needed it. It took us less than a day after they proclaimed their work done to find that the switch at the top of the basement stairs only worked if the one at the bottom of the stairs was in the up position.

Anyway, suffice to say I am often flipping switches the 'wrong' direction. This increased frequency has finally made me realize that I don't like it. I find myself trying to manipulate the switches such that the one I'm most likely to see (yes, I don't even like seeing them flipped the wrong way) will be in the correct orientation. I try my best to cope; I have a mantra that I try to focus on: "Switches do not have a state; they are neither on nor off. Only the light has a state. The switch is merely a toggle for the light's state. Look to the light for the true state. The switch tells you nothing." Believe it or not, this has actually helped ease my annoyance. I recognize that I was incorrectly equating the switch position with the state of the light. While this is true for the single switch case, it isn't necessarily so when there are multiple switches.

I say it helps, but it's still something I'm working on. I just can't help but try to discern the state of the light by looking at the switches. For some reason, I feel like I might need this information if the bulb burns out or something. For most of the two-switch lights in my house the light is only on if the two switches are in opposite directions; one up, one down. Unfortunately, this isn't true for the whole house.

Like I said, junior needed some training.