Brighten the Corner Where You Aren't

     Alternate title:  Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
    The basement bedroom in our house was the most coveted by my children because it has an attached bathroom (after our daughter's time), is as large as the master bedroom and, most importantly, is a whole floor away from the master bedroom.  When Will was the favored resident, he chronically left the light in the family room on when he went to bed. I could understand that. Since the only switch for that light was at the top of the stairs, shutting it off meant stumbling down the stairs in the dark to go to bed.  It became a nightly ritual for Reed or me to shut off the basement light before going to bed. However, by the time of Tracy's reign in the pine paneled palace, we had rewired the family room so there was a switch to shut the light off at the bottom of the stairs.  Problem solved, but nothing changed.  Every night we still found the family room light on.
     Eventually Tracy left home and there was no one occupying the basement bedroom.  That is when I discovered that leaving a light on had become an official requirement in our home because Reed exchanged being the person who shut lights off for the position of Light Leaver On-er.  It has been more than a year since Tracy moved out and I still have to shut the basement light off if, for any reason, Reed has been downstairs. If he hasn't been in the basement, he leaves the computer room light on.  He tells me he does it because he will be going back in there later.  Apparently he means later in the week.  I have tried to convince him that modern light bulbs do not require warming up, they will come on again the second he flips the switch, but to no avail.  I usually accompany Reed when he travels, but I suppose on those occasions when I am alone at night, I really should leave a light on somewhere.  It will be a dark day when I switch off an official family tradition.