Changing times

Still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me

Ch-ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon now you're gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time
        -- David Bowie, 1971

It’s funny how the “bonus” hour we receive each Fall when we get to set our clocks back seems so much more important than any other hour of the year.

Perhaps it’s because that sixty minutes is one of those something-for-nothing deals that reeks of unexpected opportunity. Unfortunately, I tend to end up spending more than an hour trying to think up a good plan for making good use of this annual gift – which clearly defeats the potential.

I wonder what might happen if the powers that be changed the official clock-reset time to a daylight hour during the workweek and encouraged us all to spend that hour creating a benefit for our communities.

If the “set-back” time were 3 p.m. on Wednesday, for example, we could all spend the second hour between 2 and 3 picking up trash, painting over graffiti or doing any other kind of service we might devise that improves the general quality of life for our towns and cities.

It’s interesting to consider how much could be done in a few hundred million hours of public service – even if they occur only once a year.

Of course, the whole daylight/standard time game is artificial – as are hours and minutes, for that matter. Time is a rather mysterious phenomenon that can be measured in very specific and detailed fashion, but can’t be controlled at all.

Time is a one-way street; we can only move toward the future.

It’s said that one can’t step foot into the same river twice – because each successive entry encounters different water. But one can get on a raft and flow with the river, slowing it’s passing a bit; or they could take a powerboat and travel upstream – racing into the future for a ways.

But, at the end of the day, the river isn’t really affected by our puny efforts to artificially speed or slow its passage. Old Man River just keeps on flowing along…

The main thing about time, it seems to me, is that it’s the most logical way to put events into perspective. While one thing may not often actually lead to another, it always happens before, during or after the time that the other occurred. That positioning, along a timeline, does seem to add some meaning, or at least context.

Time allows us to reflect and to anticipate; it provides urgency and – ultimately – deadlines.

At the end of this day, it’s probably not very significant to determine whether I’ve gained an hour or not. The certain fact is that the day that will end in a few hours will never be available again. Like every other day in my life, it’s a one-time offer.

I'm not the kind to live in the past
the years run too short, and the days too fast
The things you lean on are the things that don't last
well it’s just now and then, my line gets cast into these
time passages
There's something back there that you left behind
oh time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight
        -- Al Stewart, 1978