Saving Daylight

It’s the first Sunday in November and, if you’re like me, last night you completed what has become an autumn ritual…you turned back your clocks by one hour to save some daylight. Of course in March of 2010 you will turn your clocks ahead by one hour, again to supposedly preserve daylight. I guess by now you know this ritual is all just sleight of hand. No daylight has been spared, just shifted to accommodate our society’s need for more leisure time in the summer months.

The idea of saving daylight has probably been with us for generations. According to Wikipedia there is evidence that ancient civilizations adjusted their daily activities to the sun by dividing daylight into 12 equal parts regardless of how long the day was. Instead of pretending to “save” daylight they actually just chose to use it more practically and wisely. I guess we became too sophisticated to recognize this practical approach and instead time became locked into one hour increments forcing us to look for other ways to accommodate our need for more sunlight.

While serving as an envoy in Paris, Benjamin Franklin is credited with suggesting the concept of Daylight Saving Time (DST). What he actually wrote was a satirical challenge to his fellow Parisians, admonishing them to get up earlier in the morning so they might save money on candles. Franklin, as you know, believed early risers to be more “healthy, wealthy, and wise” than folks who slept late. If DST is a ploy to get the lazy among us out of bed I’m not sure it has served us well.

Wikipedia credits the idea of modern DST to a New Zealand entomologist, George Vernon Hudson, whose shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and made him aware of the value of after-hours daylight. I’m not going to offer the details of how a bug-lover in 1895 could convince his fellow countrymen that altering how we refer to time would benefit so many other people. Yet, over the years since then, many countries around the world have adopted this practice by jumping clocks ahead in the spring and jumping them back in the fall.

Debating the benefits and drawbacks of DST would require a much longer posting. It is purported to save energy, improve the economy, and impact public safety and health. Naturally the studies find evidence on both sides of these issues…a good thing for those receiving grants to study DST. I’m inclined to think more practically about why DST is practiced and think politics has more influence than these aforementioned advantages. When government can control some aspect of our lives there is little incentive to change the system.

I didn’t choose to write about DST because I wanted to start a revolution. Part of me is glad that my early morning walks will be a bit brighter. Part of me is mad that opportunities to rake leaves and mow grass after work have been taken away. Perhaps I’m conflicted as to why leaders, in general, feel such a need to control. We love the routines of work and play; the rhythms of order and schedule. Maybe that’s why DST will always be with us. It is our chance twice each year to act like we can control time, even though we know that no daylight was really saved.