Time to Change

I had an appointment to meet with someone at 1:00pm on Sunday. As I approached, I checked my watch, and it read 5 minutes to 1:00pm. So I felt good that I was on time. But when I parked, I realized I had forgotten to change my watch for daylight savings time. So I was actually one hour late. I no longer felt good, I now felt really bad because I was late!

Forgetting about daylight savings time and forgetting to change my watch reminded me of two things. One, time is the most valuable asset there is, so we need to use it wisely. Two, things are always changing and they always will, so we need to be willing to accept change.

So why did we “change the time”, meaning go to Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the first place? DST was adopted during the summer months to take advantage of more daylight hours in the evening. The idea behind it was to save energy and promote outdoor activities during the evening. That way, we would drive to work in the dark, but we would have more time for our family and hobbies after work. Sounds like it was a good idea to make that change right… more time in the sunshine!

Well, apparently not all change is good. The “House Energy and Commerce Committee” has decided that the twice annual changing of clocks, which was originally adopted in 1918, is no longer a good idea. And part of the reason is that Frank Pallone, Chairman of the Committee says that “the change to DST can disrupt sleep patterns and cause confusion for our kids and pets”. Really? I’m not kidding… that’s exactly what Frank said!

Okay Frank, I guess any type of change can be confusing for people (and their pets). I mean I was definitely confused on Sunday, but that’s just because I was too friggin’ lazy to check the time on my phone. So here’s the deal. The change that we are going to make regarding time, is that we are not going to change it anymore. Anyone confused?

And there is nothing more surly 

Then a watchless man 

Who doesn’t know whether 

He is late or early.

~ Ogden Nash