Zoning Out

 

On this day – New Year’s Eve as I speak – we are compelled to think of time – not just its passage, but how it passes and how we measure it. The New Year doesn’t arrive all at once, of course, because of the Earth’s rotation, but starts in the South Pacific and gradually wraps westward until the whole world is in the same year. I often tell my friends in more easterly time zones, “This is a voice from your past,” because the New Year hasn’t arrived in my zone yet. Not exactly original, I know.

There was a period where the correct time was only what the local sundial or village square bell tower clock said it was. I read where the time zones as we know them today weren’t invented until the late 19th century, necessitated by railroad scheduling.

There are occasional quirks. Before the big ball drops at midnight in New York, the New Year has already arrived in Newfoundland, Canada, at 10:30 p.m. ET. That’s right, the Newfies are half an hour off a regular time zone. Or is it the rest of us who are off?

Then there is the contentious issue of Daylight Saving Time, a misnomer because it doesn’t save daylight at all. Essentially, the same amount of light and darkness occurs at a particular latitude in standard time as in DST, so it should probably be called Daylight Shifting Time. The Germans invented it during World War I as an energy saver. Here in the US, we used DST all year for similar reasons during World War II. Since then, Congress hasn’t been able to resist playing around with the start and end of DST.

Our incoming President said he wants a single time system all year, but apparently hasn’t said which one. So, will kids have to go to school in the dark in winter, or will the 4:45 a.m. bird (not a rooster) be waking me at 3:45 in summer? Then there are Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii, which don’t have to adhere to DST. Kind of a hot mess, in my opinion.

I was always in favor of making DST permanent and letting our natural bodily rhythms ease into sunlight increases and decreases. And I love those long evenings. But it’s not quite that simple, as about 70 other countries observe two time systems and won’t change just because we do.

OK, I’m just giving myself a giant headache here, and as it’s New Year’s Eve, if I’m going to have one, it will be for other reasons. But whatever zone you’re in, Happy New Year, one and all!