Time

Sunday morning in the high desert. It is quiet with only an occasional urban landscape sound filtering through the patio abloom with flowers. Today is the first day of daylight savings time. The Sun doesn't know that it is now one hour ahead of yesterday. It rises and sets as it always does. I like it that the Sun doesn't know how we try to manipulate its arc in the heavens. I fortunately live in a state that keeps its own time and I am grateful.

Time is such an illusive phenomena. Jeremy Rifkin wrote in the 80's that as members of the nano second culture we will be the first culture to have a time reference beneath our ability to perceive. Given that nano seconds equal 1 billionth of a second , makes sitting at a traffic light for 90 seconds seem like forever. When driving and I am often being cut off (usually by some big SUV that equates size with ownership) I am reminded that we do not know how to operate with such a time reference. Our reference to time is so fast, we cannot relate to the mundane with ease. We forget the basics of "space/time courtsey." How do we maneuver in traffic? How do we wait in line? Even online dating: connection to another takes only the click of the mouse, available 24/7. What happened to courtship and chance encounters?

I am not sure fast equates with anything other than fast. I know the time it takes the sun to set or rise has not changed. I know the tides ebb and flow with a rhythm that has been forever. So why is it that man wants to manipulate the hours of day light? Energy conservation -- that can happen by living "green." If you are serious, don't dabble with the sunlight, buy a hybrid, use solar energy, and build with eco-friendly materials. Think adobe. I am aware of the exceptions. Those living on the farthest reaches of our eastern seaboard, welcome it...but somehow that argument doesn't hold for the rest of the country.

I say honor time for what it is and that includes the nano-second culture. Enjoy the seasons and all that comes with it. Don't short change mother nature by the use of a clock. She has been around for a long time and she probably has a grip on what is in our best interests no matter what time man wants the clock to say.