Time After Time

            It seems to me that when the United States switches back and forth to Daylight Savings Time the problems that it causes is not worth any gains that it may make. An old proverb that expresses my feelings is attributed to a Native American. “Only a white man believes that by cutting six inches off the bottom of his blanket and sewing it to the top, he will make his blanket longer.” That’s such a foolish notion, but isn’t that exactly what the government has done?

            The other pithy saying I heard was while our church group was tenting out west quite a few years ago. An older farmer’s wife heard us trying to decide what time zone we were in. When we asked her for the correct time, she said, “It don’t matter to my cows, so it don’t worry me either,” and she laughed. Well she was correct. Cows can’t tell time. Only us sheeple are so involved for making appointments, being on time for buses, trains, or arriving on time to punch-in at work.

            Now that I’m retired I have partially escaped the “time” net. I rise up and go to bed whenever I decide that I’m sleepy (nap times included) or eating when I’m hungry. Arriving for my appointments are the only real vestiges that remain from that being punctual world, but I’m glad for those commitments that remain. They are the only anchors that persist to let me know what day it is.

            My dad was more than just punctual and that habit has rubbed off onto me. His one thought about being on time was, “If you’re not early, you’re late.” It would upset him if we caused him to wait when he was ready to leave. When a snow storm caused him to be late for work or for church, he never forgave winter for it.

            I firmly believe that the government should add thirty minutes from one time change and subtract thirty minutes from the other. There would be no more springing ahead and no more falling back. The ebb and flow of time would return to being a steady rate without the interfering hands of government yanking back on the reins or driving us ahead,. It would save us from adjusting the clocks throughout house and the car. It also would make it less likely I we will arrive late to an appointment or to church services. It makes much more sense than the system we are being told to use now, but common sense hasn’t always grown in the government’s garden.