We have all heard jokes in the past along the lines of How many X does it take to change or screw in a light bulb. With many jokes there is an undertone of society, culture, belief or the circle of people we find ourselves in. The politically correctness of these jokes I am not calling into question. At the end of the day, we should be able to laugh at ourselves before we laugh with or at others. The shadow of mockery is not above any of us. The question I have is not how many but when.

Can you tell what I am drawing before you reach the end?

When will someone turn the light on? Maybe more important is, when will we take notice someone turned the light on?

I am using the words of this joke, loosely in this post and realise this is probably not what the words mean. Someone had to think these jokes up though and there had to be a reason why it was deemed as funny.

A few of these jokes would be:

How many programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
None, That's a hardware problem.

How many graduate students does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one, but it takes nine years.

How many professors does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one, but they get three technical reports out of it.

How many Psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one, but the bulb has got to really WANT to change.

In these jokes there is some kind of characterization going on. A type of person, though not all in the same profession will behave in the same manner. Characteristics are placed over the people who take up those professions.
Regardless of the character, I would like to dissect the light bulb part out of context. While we can see a character representation, what does the light bulb represent?

The phrase,
The lights are on but there is no one home. That can be me sometimes, when I hear something said in the ramble shows and my mind takes on its own journey. By the time I end the journey with something to say, the topic will have changed four or five times and then ping a light comes on.

The first thing I think of when a light goes on is, Oh it's brighter now. From out of the darkness I can now see. Taken this new enlightenment as the light going on. The gaining of knowledge or assembling of thought becomes the light.

Maybe the light of knowledge should of never been turned on. If so we would not be doing the things we are doing today. The world being a better place for any reason is debatable as we would not be debating this world if it was not the evolutionary road we walked.

Can we turn on the lights of society. Make a bulb shine so bright it is the bulb everyone will see. When we look and we see what we see will we turn around cause it is not what we want to see. Will we still want to walk the same road we have being walking? Knowing where it is taking us, will we have a choice to create a new road.

Did you guess the picture?

Do we want someone to turn the light on? Who do we want to turn the light on? Will one more light in a world of bulbs make any difference.

For me all I can say is,
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.