Ok, so I don’t like DST. I’ll admit my prejudices up front. I have reasonable objections on the most part, I think. I don’t recall many people who think it is a good idea. I have no idea who is responsible for making this happen, other than an act of congress and we all have different ideas as to whether they know what is going on or not.
I am a morning person, I like getting up early and getting ready for the day. I love the back half of March because the early sunrise seems to make Spring deliciously enjoyable. It just feels like spring. For the last decade or so, it may have been my favorite time of year. Now, moving the date up to the first weekend in March has stolen most of those enjoyable mornings. I consider this a theft of my mental well-being.
Since my wife and I have been leading worship most of our lives, we find that our worship team in specific, and churches in general are among the first to be “punished” by this change. We are among the first to muscle it up and deal with the lost hour. We start preparations and begin our services an hour earlier, leading a smaller gathering of worshipers who somehow remembered to set their clock ahead, but find it harder to set their alertness ahead. It’s only an hour! You finally get used to it. What’s the big deal?
At the heart of it, I just don’t understand why. I think it was enacted at a time when we were much more agrarian in nature. Benjamin Franklin may be responsible for the idea producing an essay called “An Economical Project” on the subject in 1794 while in France. An Englishman named William Willett is responsible for initiating the idea in England in 1907, lamenting the “waste of daylight”. When someone suggested he just get up an hour earlier, he was shocked. That would only work for him so let’s force everyone to enjoy this great benefit?
There are only two states who refuse to go along with the insanity, Arizona and Hawaii. Smart people, and seeming to be smarter every year. So far, that enticing prospect is not enough to lure me to move there.
All in all, it bugs me that hardly anyone is in favor of it. It easily gives one more daylight to work. It forces you to get up earlier to start but gives you an extra hour on the back side to keep working, farming, programming, digging ditches … it doesn’t matter, the sun is still up so you can keep at it. There are pro’s and cons, but studies show conflicting results. The Austin Statesman had an article on it this weekend, citing a study in Finland which indicated the instance of heart attacks increased in the weeks following the beginning of DST and decreased in the Fall when the clocks were restored to standard time. Sleep habits are disturbed, efficiency in the work place / school drop for a period … the change affects us, maybe just a few weeks, but it happens. The health issues may be offset statistically because the Finnish study found that automobile accidents decreased because people drive better in the daylight. There are other studies that indicate the opposite, more accidents occur. ???
Even the supposed energy savings is in doubt since office buildings and school buildings run utilities longer in order to accommodate the longer work day. The grand sum of the positives doesn’t seem to add up to any total we like.
Again, for me, I don’t understand why. Few seem to like it, few advocate it as a great savings, but we keep doing it. Worse, we increase the amount of time we are operating under the Daylight Insanity Time. If we have to do it, why don’t we shorten it some, like start in May and end in October?
However, I recognize the issue must not be that important. I am one of the most offended people and I am not motivated enough to start a movement to correct this Time / Health / Sanity issue. There are other, more important issues to give myself to. That’s probably the biggest issue. It’s not a big enough issue so we keep on living with the insanity.
