We Can’t Even Come Together on a Time Zone in the So-Called United States

I’m a farmer’s great-grandchild, and I still hate the wrongly named “Daylight Saving Time” That’s like cutting off the bottom of a shirt and sewing it to the top to make it longer.

Nope. Doesn’t work that way.

Did it make sense at one time? Maybe. I know my great-grandfather did his farmerly duty and woke up at the butt-crack of dawn. Not only did he wake up, he turned his radio to sonic boom, stomped through the house, and at each bedroom announced in his deep, loud voice, “Wake up, you’re wasting daylight.” As if that were a thing.

Einstein said “Matter can be neither created nor destroyed.” Neither can daylight. He didn’t say that, but he could have.

You would think that after we — or someone who wasn’t Newton — invented Quantum Theory, we would know There Is No Such Thing as Time. Knowing time is a construct, we would stop this silly practice of trying to save daylight. And some states have.

Arizona sits in it’s sunlit glory and steadfastly refuses to join the majority of the other states, all of whom, like lemmings off a cliff, “Spring up in the Spring” and “Fall back in the Fall”. Except even Arizona isn’t unified.

The Navajo Nation, within Arizona, follow DST to stay in sync with other states who also contain part of the Nation. Four states come together to form the Four Corners where the Navajo Reservation joins. If possible, they would likely prefer to make their Nation separate from all four states, and then save daylight or not, their choice.

New Mexico if one of the lemmings. We Spring forward in the Spring, into what are already longer days with plenty of sunshine, because — mountains. We’re closer to the sun in places by about 10,000 feet, and the sun shines even when there’s a foot of snow on the ground. Which there wasn’t this year because — climate warming.

In the Fall we fall back, which means the sun sets at 5:30 at the latest. Maybe it’s just me, but when it’s both COLD and DARK, I hibernate. Nothing gets done, including carousing and night life. Not that New Mexico has a lot of night life, other than actual wild life, but still. I like to have the option.

Hawaii doesn’t observe DST either. They say they’re close enough to the equator that they get all the sun they want or need all the time. Time, of which there is no such thing, as we’ve established. On beaches in lush Hawaii we can grasp the concept of no time. Not that I would know. I’ve never been, but all my friends who have vacationed there attest to the sunny days and fabulous beaches. Braggarts.

U.S. Territories, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands also don’t observe DST. I don’t know why, but I suspect they’re simply flying under the radar. Maybe literally these days. They are mostly ignored by U.S. leadership, and they want to keep it that way. Caribbean islands and countries aren’t faring so well right now.

Why, oh why, do any states follow Daylight Savings Time? Presumably to chase more daylight, like a besotted Greek God racing across the sky in his golden chariot. In spite of the fact that the actual sunlight is always there. It doesn’t go anywhere.

Chasing it doesn’t work. The earth moves around it, not so much chasing as — let’s call it — orbiting.

There are 24 hours in a day. Some are daylight and some are not. It really is that simple. Let’s leave daylight alone. It managed quite well without our meddling for most of the Earth’s existence. You can bet there was plenty of farming going on before we decided to “save” daylight. It never needed saving.

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This post was previously published on MuddyUm.

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