The semi-annual insanity is upon us.
G.V. Hudson is to blame
It is time for my semi-annual rant and wish that G.V. Hudson had a different hobby. Hudson, a New Zealander, collected insects and was a shift worker. In 1895 he proposed Daylight Savings Time so he could collect insects after work in daylight. The world rightly ignored his idea but it was also championed by a golfer William Willett in 1907. He fought for it tirelessly and the world rightfully ignored him as well. But, to save energy during WWI, Germany adopted Daylight Saving Time and soon other countries in the conflict followed. The time pox has been on humanity since. In the fall Americans set their clocks back to standard time. In the spring they go back on artificial time.
Golfer William Willett had the same bad idea
As I have mentioned before I stopped changing my clocks a dozen years ago. People who visit my home know I stay on “Deane Time.” I absolutely refuse to go on “daylight savings time.” The entire idea strikes me a silly particularly when one considers there is a fixed amount of daylight no matter how we set our clocks. It is rightfully called “daylight slaving time.” Only the government would cut the top foot off a blanket, sew it on the bottom, and then argue the blanket is longer.
What really got to me was the seasonal flipping: Springing forward, falling back, feeling miserable. Time change always left me out of sorts for weeks. For more than a decade now I don’t flip. I don’t change the clocks, when I get up, when I eat, when I go to bed or when I feed the animals. This family stays on standard time. I just recognize that for half the year the rest of the country thinks it is ahead of me by one hour.
Semi-annual nonsense
Fortunately nature is not so wrong-headed. Animals and plants ignore the time change. Cows get milked at the same time no matter what hour it is. Plants grow the same while we pretend there is more light in the evenings during summer. (Though as a kid I remember marveling that at 9 p.m. it was still light outside.)
There is also a philosophical reasons. So much of our lives is artificial. And artificial “daylight savings time” is but one more thing to knock us out of sync with the world around us. I spend a lot of time with Mother Nature and I prefer her time to man’s. And grumpy me, I like to use my watches (12- and 24-hour) as compasses, and that’s easier if one stays on solar time. Thus I do. And more than one study shows it actually cost more to go on Daylight Savings Time than not and is less healthy.
From a factual point of view, the majority of people on earth do not go on Daylight Savings Time. How sensible. Asia doesn’t nor does Africa. Most equatorial countries don’t. Great Britain and Ireland tried staying on DST permanently from 1968 to 1971 but went back because it was unpopular. Most of Arizona does not go on DST. Lead the way Arizona. Daylight Savings Time is a bad idea that needs to go away. You can refuse to let it disrupt your life. We all have phones and computers to remind us what the outside world thinks is the right time. Let them but keep your personal life on standard time. You can do it. This weekend I have nothing to change and no misery to go through. Give it a try.
(In 2018 Florida passed a measure to stay on Daylight Savings Time permanently, as Great Britain and Ireland tried and rejected 50 years ago. Called the “Sunshine Protection Act” it requires congressional approval because DST is a federal dictate. Florida’s request is not going to happen in a bitter, divided place like Washington D.C. which has other priorities than sunshine in the sunshine state. If Florida had decided to stay on standard time it could do that without federal approval. Unless Florida revisits the legislation you are stuck with flipping. Opportunity missed. You screwed up Tallahassee.)
