When you shouldn't let your light shine

We had a power outage yesterday. We still don't know the reason why: the weather was fairly warm for this time of year and mild. No big windstorms that are the usual culprits in our outages. Sooner or later, someone will find out from someone else the cause of our  power loss. Still, we're prepared for such things, so it wasn't really a big deal.

But the power was out for around five or six hours just at the end of the day as the sun went down. And it remained out till just before midnight. It was a dark night, and it was fascinating to see what our little stretch of hinterlands looks like without the lights of any of our normally visible neighbors.

Except for one. There's a fairly new home that's been built on a mountainside about five or six miles away as the crow flies. It looks like a nice place, and all of the locals are pretty much in agreement that it was constructed to be a live-in bug out. So as I scanned my pretty-close-to-360° view during the power outage it was really interesting to see a bright light - the only light - coming from that new place.

Now anyone who's ever read any of my columns, knows that I am not a fanatic when it comes to the concept of OPSEC. The reality of it for any long-term prepper is that your neighbors (and the hardware store owner, FedEx delivery driver, post office worker, etc.) know that you're a prepper. That's why, in my opinion, the lone-wolf prepping scenario is inferior to developing a community. If people around you know that you're a prepper, then you're far better off if you turn those neighbors into allies rather than potential competitors.

The fellow that built that house up on the hill is a lot more interested in the castle-defense system as opposed to the community defense-in-depth model that I prefer. Well and good, that's his choice and I'm all in favor of people being able to do what they want to do with their own land. But despite the extensive building he's done, the one thing that he hasn't done is to build a relationship with the community around them. So firing up a bright light at night during a power failure simply isn't a good idea - not if you don't want to keep constantly reminding your neighbors that you're there, and apparently have the means to light the night when everyone else is in darkness.

There's a biblical admonition Matthew 5: 15 and 16 that says:

15: Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16:  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

But in this particular case, I think I'd recommend that the owner of that house should invest in a bushel basket or at least some blackout curtains.