SAVING TIME
By Glenn Thomas Carson, Ph.D.

Who decided that Daylight Saving Time (DST) was a good idea? If you’re like me, you don’t remember who first came up with the idea. Was it Benjamin Franklin or FDR? It doesn’t matter who first thought of it, because it’s a bad idea all around.

Your biological clock is set from birth. Just as soon as you let out that first cry, your clock is ticking. Your body, at the cellular level, knows exactly what time it is for you. Your subconscious, the real you, knows the nanosecond you were born and it knows, right down to the last breath, when you will die. Of course, it does not divulge that information to your conscious mind. Your psyche couldn’t take it. Your ego would implode. So, your subconscious mind, the real you, just keeps this secret to itself. It understands from the very beginning how long you will grace planet Earth. And it is not off by even one second. It just lets the ego imagine all sorts of imaginings about the future.

So, what’s the deal with DST? We pretend twice a year to change the clock. Oh! We’re going to fool the universe. We’ll just set the clock to any old time we want! No. Time and Space are expanding at a constant rate. There isn’t any ‘add-an-hour, subtract-an-hour.’ That is completely in our imaginations. Time is what it is. It is moving forward at a steady pace. It isn’t going to slow down, or speed up, at the whim of human beings.

This has to be the epitome of hubris. We are absolutely convinced that we, as humans, are at the center of the universe. We can start and stop Time at will. Guess what? We can’t. Time just goes along at its own speed. It doesn’t care whether or not we agree. Time doesn’t care whether or not we concur. It doesn’t matter to Time what hour we set our clocks. Because Time isn’t going to change its course. It is going to keep right on doing what it does: Move. Forward. In an expanding, changing, forward-leaning way. Time just is. And it is not going to alter its course just because we humans here on tiny planet Earth decide that it should.
So, let’s leave the clock alone. Hell, Indianapolis had it right all along. Let’s just let the day end when it wants to. Let’s just let the night come when it will. Let’s leave the clock alone. Because, in the end, we can’t manipulate Time. We so wish we could set the clock back – a month, or a year. But we can’t. So, let the sun rise when it wants to. Let the moon come out if it’s in the mood. And you and me? Well, we better just get used to Time pushing us into the future. It’s not going to stop. It’s doesn’t care whether we like it or not. Time is just doing its thing.

The next time you wonder – ‘What Time Is It?’ – you will know that the only time that matters is now; the only day that matters is today; the only night that counts is the one that is falling; and the only clock that works is the one that’s stopped. Because, Time isn’t kept by a clock, or any other mechanism that we can contrive. It won’t be kept. It’s moving. It’s leaning forward. Time is the one who is walking with you all along the path, and the one who is waiting for you at the end.

I don’t believe in trying to save Time. It didn’t ask us to save it in the first place.

The Reverend Dr. Glenn Thomas Carson is President of Disciples of Christ Historical Society, a general ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)