The last two nights were the coldest of the winter thus far.  Tuesday may have been the coldest I have experienced at this latitude, and was certainly the chilliest since we arrived several years ago.  With any luck, this is the low point for the winter.  I am tired of winter already. The cold, the dark, the imposed indoors.  The leaking outdoor faucet that trickles a small sliver of ice onto the area where we park our vehicles, with no way to shut it off without cutting the water to everything else.  The realization that the faucet needs replacement with a newer, cold resistant device, and there’s nothing I can do about it until the weather warms, and there is sufficient daylight after work to accomplish the task.

Aye, there’s the rub, as the bard said.  Part of my frustration is with nature – which is natural, I guess.  But a bigger part is that if this were a sensible civilization, I could have that extra hour of daylight now, when I really need it, and not have to wait until mid-March.  You may say this is a trivial complaint but I disagree: it is something that cuts to the very heart of the freedom we have surrendered in our modern world.

It is time to make a stand for a permanent change in that process we call daylight savings time.  My gripe is not so much with the idea of moving the clock forward, but that we have to ever move it back again.  Push it ahead, I say, or leave it behind and, damn it, leave it alone.

In the name of progress – so many things have been done to us in the name of progress – our nation went to Universal Daylight Savings Time (with a couple of notable exceptions) in the 1960s.  It would save energy, the experts and the politicians told us.  They also promised we would love summer days extended.  The initial “experiment,” if you could call it that, divided the year into nearly equal parts DST and Standard Time.  In 2007, a Congress dominated once again by progressives gave us more “daylight time” by extending it into November and reviving it again in March, again declaring that we could save .003 percent on energy usage and save the planet.

Problem is: no one really knows if we’re saving energy or not.  As one researcher for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory remarked in 2016, in order to know whether are saving energy we would have to do a study that includes areas which intermittently participate in DST and then drop out for a comparable length of time.  There are no such studies and no such geographical areas.  We have no baseline data to indicate whether we are harvesting the fruits of energy saving.  However, there are other well-documented studies which cast doubt on DSTs energy-saving powers.

Did anyone ever asked the question: why is it necessary to mess with my clock to save energy? I am the one using it.  I am the one paying for it. If I desire to save energy (and I generally do), I can lower my thermostat, increase and improve my home insulation, switch to geothermal, buy solar panels (assuming I can afford them and ignore the math on their longevity).  There are many other proven voluntary actions that will increase energy savings and the balance in my checkbook.  But it should be my decision.  Incent me, O overbearingly concerned politicians, with tax credits and such, if you insist, but the decision should be mine.

Let us be truthful: Daylight Savings Time is much more about lifestyle than energy savings. A nation that lives in cities and suburbs like the idea of extra daylight after work. Because the extra daylight goes away during the darkest days of the year only magnifies the desire to get it back.

At what cost?  We have growing medical (scientific) evidence that some, perhaps most people pay a serious price with their health during the transitions from “daylight” to “standard” time.  When the clock leaps forward or falls back, they lose sleep, experience extra stress, suffer more heart attacks and strokes, and are often more irritable at work.  The time for most of us is one to three weeks before our sleep cycles adjust.

In other words, there is a human toll. You cannot put a price tag on the value of human life, or even human discomfort. But are our political lifestyle managers paying attention?  Is anyone pushing for a common sense change?  Face it, Congress is hard of hearing when We the People show up without writing checks to political action committees.  The nation’s dwindling corps of farmers, who still convince their livestock that the hours have changed, learned this lesson decades ago. On the other hand, big retailers love daylight time because people shop later, although they may be indoors, shopping online these days.

From a practical point of view, I like the extra daylight. I would like it even more if it were available in the darkest winter weeks and months. That’s exactly when we do not get it.  Logically, it seems that if we save energy (theoretically) in summer by leaping forward, should we not save even more in winter (theoretically) by just leaving it ahead?But who am I to tell the rest of the world (including you, dear reader) where to set your clocks? Yet the world seems to think nothing of imposing its will on mine! This is not only wrong, I would propose that it is immoral.

If you believe in God, you accept and rejoice that He created the sun and the moon, darkness and light, day and night, summer and winter, spring time and harvest.  If you prefer to believe in the God-like properties of Mother Nature, instead of Nature‘s God, then you are apt to similarly except the limitations of daylight and darkness.  It is only if you believe in the God-like powers of humanity that you believe there is no limit to the manipulation of time and space, all in the name of the greater good, of course.

During the past century, in our Gold Rush-like race to evolve our society, including an embrace of all things technical and “scientific,” we have wrought many changes to human life.  Some are clearly beneficial. Some, not so much.  In the stew of additives, medications, communications and altered modes of thought and speech, I would argue that we have become strangers to the natural world, distanced from our planet, and from one another in unhealthy and even dangerous ways.  Perhaps daylight savings time was meant to send us out doors in the evenings, instead of to the shopping malls.  But what a blunt instrument we have chosen in order to influence a change in human behavior!  How we allow others to have authority over us, and we do not ask them, “When did you consult us to do this?”

Meanwhile, human behavior keeps changing as our tools and our toys change.  What good does it do to be outdoors if we instead prefer places where there is a strong Wifi signal. Worse, what good is it to be outdoors if our eyes are riveted on the little screen of our phones?

Our personal decisions should be kept personal, else we lose all semblance of independence.  Independence means nothing if it is not protected and conserved.  We should not easily hand over any of our powers to decide, even the very smallest, for it is there that the over-arching grasp of authority pinches most acutely.

I want to be free to observe time based upon my observation of the day’s passage (which is the essence of the scientific method, is it not?   There really is no conflict between Faith and Reason.)  The sun comes up, a new day dawns. It should not be arbitrary whether it is 6:30, or 7:30, depending upon the month or the day.  It should not be up to experts, bureaucrats and politicians to interfere with the natural cycle of life.

How to regain control from the bureaucrats in Washington?  First, we must have this conversation.  Then, perhaps, we apply pressure to our elected representatives at the state and federal level. We demand common sense. In pressing for the extinction of daylight savings time and its twice a year idiocy, in a very small way we could begin the return control of our lives back to, yes, individuals. We the people.

Life doesn’t have to be so damn complicated. It was never meant to be so. Think about it. Pray about it, if you are one who believes in prayer.

There is a precedent for rolling back sweeping progressive lifestyle changes.

Are you old enough to remember, or have you been told, of the great experiment in a national speed limit: 55 miles per hour, except on a very limited set of national highways.  This was meant to enforce energy savings upon us because, we were so earnestly told by the same group of progressive experts, the world was running out of oil, and the United States, as a major energy consumer, needed to set an example.  We were also told that it would save lives as motorists went slower.  The federal law came to pass in 1974.

This experiment was about as popular as prohibition.  Sammy Hagar expressed the outrage of a frustrated nation when he screamed, “I can’t drive 55!”  Troglodytic citizens like myself discovered CB radio, radar detectors and quietly voted for people who assured us that they would push for giving control of speed limits back to the states.  In 1995, the first Republican-controlled Congress in forever repealed the “double nickel” speed law, and a measure of sanity returned to the land.  What we had learned was this: highway deaths did not decrease during the 55-mph era — but they have decreased since then, thanks to safety innovations in automobile manufacture and stricter enforcement of drunk-driving laws.  While the experts thought we would save 2-3 percent more energy with slower speeds, the savings were meager, if at all, and did not take into account the cost of increased times in travel and delivery.  Time, after all, is money.

Perhaps the Daylight Savings changes are not as inconveniently obtrusive as the 55-mph speed limit.  But ask your friends, at least those who have not surrendered their capacity for rational thought to their progressive overlords, about how they feel twice a year when the clock changes are mandated.  Do not be surprised that they find them annoying or worse.

Think about it.  Pray about it.  We could make this happen.

New Year’s resolutions should be done with serious intent, else you reveal yourself as a not-serious person. A resolution – or a set of them – brought forth with no intention to keep them is a frivolous exercise, a pre-ordained futility.  It is said that most New Year’s resolutions are abandoned within a few days, and very few survive the January chill.  I wonder if it has always been so or is this another sign of a people who have forgotten how to be resolute?  What is the point of free will if one refuses to abide by one’s own decisions?

This year I have committed to a small list that I am certain will test my resolve:

1. To be more charitable toward those who are not acting in a charitable manner. (Perhaps it is necessary to define charity. Aquinas defines this as the love of man for God, and the concomitant love of man for neighbor, together the greatest commandment. It is much more than the giving of goods to others, but the giving of one’s better nature. Charity is lacking in our society these days.)
2. To confine my eating to a 10-hour window so as to discipline my body with extended fasting. Recent studies have shown this an effective way to lose weight and to bring about other beneficial health changes.
3. To walk a bit more, and to talk a bit less.
4. To listen to others with greater intensity.
5. To pray with fewer distractions.
6. To put more love into my work, and more work into the love I profess.
7. To visit the confessional at least once each calendar month. As I tell my students, reconciliation is like a shower. Everyone needs to wash off the accumulated dirt occasionally.

 

 

Today is New Year’s Eve, as well as the Feast of the Holy Family. One calendar year is ending, the Christmas season is at its midpoint and, as a much smaller event in the cosmic scheme of things, this website begins.

My name is David, as was my father’s, as is one of my sons.  I am a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, student, occasional farmer, journalist, editor, writer and musician; a voracious reader, and an observer of life.  Taken as individuals, I like people. Taken as a collective, not always so much.  I try to listen as much as I talk. It’s good advice for all of us, but not so easy to follow, as I am reminded frequently. This leads to an important admission: I am a sinner who wants to be a saint, in constant need of course correction from within and without.  If I were perfect, I would already be dead, because perfection is not yet an app available in this world.  It is in the Divine Plan to release Perfection 2.0 for the human race. Someday.

Once upon a time I wrote and posted much online, but a few years ago I withdrew.  I realized that I was part of the problem and not the solution.  What problem, you may ask?  I was a contributor to the coarsening of culture and the disintegration of our civilization.  My absence went unnoticed by all but my dearest ones, most of whom understood.  The culture continues to coarsen and our civilization, if you can call it that, has become most uncivil.  If the direction of the fall is unchecked, I do not believe we will enjoy the impact.

I chose the title “After the Gold Rush” because I was a great fan of Neil Young in the ’70s. That is not true.  (Well, it is true that I was a fan …)  I chose the title because it is my belief that since about 1945, the people of what is commonly called “the West” (Europe and America) have chased after “gold” in the form of affluence, material goods, convenience, pleasure, sensuality and power.  We have followed our passions from pursuit to pursuit. We have reordered our lives around perceived riches and anticipated windfalls.  In doing so, we either lost sight of or rejected old values.  We pursued progress for the sake of progress, without pausing to ask, “Does this make me a better person?”  We just assumed it would.

I am not saying that the tools and toys we enjoy today are worthless or evil in themselves. (I just bought a new iPhone X, and I must admit, I’m loving it.)  It is not our gadgets and technology that is our problem (that could change with Artificial Intelligence, but that’s a topic for another day).  Our problem is that we have allowed our hearts and minds to grow numb to our basic spiritual needs.  We have fallen prey to the grand deception that simply because we employ great tools, we are great builders. That because we wield enhanced communication powers, we have become great communicators.  That because we can add a hashtag to any thought, we have all become great philanthropists.  Meanwhile, there is a world of people in pain, and we see them not.

Situational ethics have replaced traditional morals, and the result is that there is no consensus of what constitutes right conduct.  Since our laws and jurisprudence reflect shared moral and ethical beliefs, is it any wonder that many people have no faith in legislatures and courts, or police officers?

Family life is diminished. For some it is non-existent. Too many do not even care whether families are restored, or if they survive at all.  This is a failing of modern society, and it may well be terminal.  No stable society has ever existed without a foundation of strong family life.  We experiment today, but our grandchildren will be the ones evaluating the results.

Our political world is dysfunctional but we continue to treat it as just another game on Sunday afternoon, just as we now treat the Sunday afternoon game as an exercise in politics.

Is there no hope?  If I thought that, then I would become a serious doomsday prepper and stock up on freeze dried food and ammo.  There is always hope. We did not get in this condition overnight, and we won’t get out of it that quickly either, unless there is Divine assistance (which I do not discount).

There are many good people on all sides of the socio-political divide who want to see a better world for their children and children’s children.  What we need is to understand and recognize the remedies for our civilization.  They exist and we must discuss them.

I am not interested in litigating the results of the last political election.  If you are looking for a place to vent, go elsewhere.  Our political leaders reflect the spiritual and psychological health of the people. We must heal ourselves, starting with ourselves. Then we will see change.

I believe that we are not past the point of rescue, but it will take a willingness to step away from the conflict and tumult and become open to alternative ways of thinking and feeling.

I believe that we need God’s help for any real progress as individuals. I know this because I have experienced His healing and bear witness to its efficacy.  If you are not sure you believe in this God, I would invite you to at least entertain the possibility with an open mind and heart.  What is there to lose?

There is so much more to say, but time enough ahead to say it.  Thank you for being here, and I hope you return often.  I pray that in the time to come, we become fast friends. Perhaps even family.