Yesterday marked our annual shift to daylight savings time. There are lots of opinions about this time change. Some love it, including me. I adore a glass of wine or cup of tea on the patio on those glorious long Michigan summer evenings when the universe seems just about perfect. I don’t mind the short period of darker mornings, I am not at my best at that time of day anyway. Others abhor the time change, as it disrupts schedules for kids and pets, and induces a sort of jet lag. Some studies even link the time changes to increases in depressive symptoms, car accidents, and heart attacks. While I am sympathetic to all of that, I can not deny the fact that I love daylight savings time.
I do, however, regret the lost hour. An hour that I could have spent doing something useful. It was an hour effectively wasted (or, I suppose, put into a zero-interest bank account until fall). Benjamin Franklin, who had more-than-enough advice for living, once said, “Don’t squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” Perhaps a single hour lost each spring isn’t enough to worry about, but I’d wager that nearly 100 percent of Americans over the age of 10 squander much, much more time than that every day. Probably before breakfast. We live in a culture of digital addiction- to our phones, our social media feeds, the 24-hour news cycle, New York Times crossword puzzles, real news, fake news, AI slop…things that suck our time like mosquitoes suck our blood. In fact entire days can disappear into the abyss of mindless electronic drivel. Entire days vanish with no trace.
I want those days back.
When I retired, I thought I’d have vast stretches of time for all sorts of creative endeavors- writing, reading, photography, learning the physics of dark matter, weaving, tending the garden, playing my bassoon. But at the end of far-too-many days, I realized that while there were a million things I could have done, but, in fact, I did none of them. I am not exactly sure where the days went but zap! — just like that they were gone.
I want those days back.
Some days, I squandered a lot of energy being “busy” without really getting anything done. This was insidious because I felt like I was accomplishing things. I felt good. In reality though, I ran in circles, much like my puppy in the backyard. Chasing my tail. Running after random squirrels. Trying to catch a butterfly. Wearing myself out and getting nowhere. There are times when this chaotic random motion is necessary to identify a direction, but sometimes I let myself believe it was the direction. I suspect I am not alone.
I want those days back.
There are also days that I’d like to have back because I squandered good will or friendship. Those are the days when a simple act of kindness or a gentle word could have made all the difference, but apathy, indolence, or even worse, self-centered pride, got in the way and I lost an opportunity to build a relationship or support a friend. I regret those days when I could have made a difference if only I were paying attention and making the effort, but I simply failed.
I want those days back.
We get our daylight savings time lost hour back in the fall. We never get those squandered days back.
The Buddha said “The trouble is, you think you have time.”
Send comments
(include email if you want a response)
My Cabinet of Curiosities 