It's time we talked about time. You got a minute?
Getting up an hour earlier every morning this week started this train. Sure the clock says 6, but my body says 5 and so does yours. But what really is time if we can change it just by pressing a button (or moving the big hand)?
What am I saying? Most of us don't even press a button because in the year 2022 (arbitrary as it may be) all of our clocks are connected to the CLOCK so all you have to do is wake up on Sunday and probably never even realize it's an hour later than you thought. The clock don't lie.
Until your body tells you something ain't right when the alarm goes off Monday morning and you get to work and it's dark as a puddle when Friday it was light.
The clock don't lie?
While this only happens a couple of times a year these days, in the 19th century it might happen just by visiting the nearest town. Different railroads kept different clocks so it might be 5:15 in Pikeville but 4:43 in Whitesburg.
If you really want to start thinking, for most of history there were no clocks. The time was just where the sun was, which really makes night confusing. And there was no Sunday or Monday or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday for that matter. Every day was just the day after.
The Romans had a lunar calendar with the days of the month numbered. The ides, when debts were paid and assassinations undertaken, were the days in the middle of the month, usually 13-15. They had no humpdays.
The Greeks had twelve month calendars but nobody followed them until they'd add a random month for debauchery every few years. That really doesn't sound like such a bad idea.
The ancient Chinese calendar still used today has twelve months except in leap years when there are thirteen months. A standard year is 353-355 days and leap year is 383-385. Oh yes, and years are animals. This one's the tiger.
But back to the question. If we can change time to our whims, does time even exist? If time doesn't exist, exactly when is it when it's about damned time?
And that's the question Marco Rubio answered last week with the Sunshine Protection Bill, designed to put the entire United States) on Daylight Savings Time permanently.
Now is the time, evidently, as the Senate passed the bill unanimously, pushing it in front of things some might call more pressing. Now it's up to Congress.
We did this before, in 1974. The idea was wildly popular back then like it is today. Over 80% of the American public supported the law when it went into effect January 8 of that year. But by March, most Americans hated dark winter mornings and the law was reversed in time for the coming winter.
That was 48 years ago. Things are different now. Fewer live on the clock, fewer are up at dawn. Maybe the time is right.
If there really is such a thing.