The Sunnyvale Sun

Letters & Opinions

Now's the time to think about time

By Michael Cronk

Starting this year in most of the United States, Daylight Savings Time begins at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March. That's March 11, to be precise. The clock will go back to regular time on the first Sunday in November.

So remember: It's "spring forward and fall back." And that concludes the public service portion of this column.

If it seems that DST is arriving early this year, that it kind of crept up on us, you'd be right. Daylight Savings Time has been used in the U.S. since World War I. It remained an option for local jurisdiction until 1966 and the adoption of the Uniform Time Act, which decreed that DST would begin the first Sunday in April and end on the last Sunday in October.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Savings Time, called "war time," from 1942 to 1945. Another "emergency" law regarding DST was signed by President Nixon during the energy crisis in 1974.

Earlier and longer DST, beginning in 2007, is intended to make better use of daylight in the summer months and to conserve energy. According to a U.S. Department of Transportation study, DST saves energy because electricity use is reduced approximately one percent daily.

So time can be, to a small extent, manipulated. Albert Einstein realized that time speeds up or slows down depending on how fast one thing is moving relative to something else. Yep, that relativity thing.

The whole early DST thing got me thinking about the nature of time, I'm not alone. It's a subject that's preoccupied theologians, philosophers, historians, sleep-deprived mothers, bus drivers and newspaper reporters and editors--to name a few--over the centuries. Its universality is evident in the following proverbs I gleaned from the Internet: "Time is master of him who has no master" (Arabian); "Time and tide wait for no men" (English); "There is no hand to catch time" (Indian); "Time has strong teeth" (Norwegian).

In the newspaper business, reporters and editors are always aware of time because of the tyranny of deadlines. One minute after finishing an issue it's time to start on another.

In Silicon Valley, time is at a frenetic pace because it's all about staying ahead of the competition. Fast thinking and quick decisions: Time to market. 24/7 workload.

I wonder if the goats munching down the weeds near the SMaRT Station know their workday hours are about to change. Probably not.

And we all want to save time. One of the most common advertising gimmicks is to promise to save the customer time--standing in line at the bank, picking up dinner on the way home, or achieving physical fitness with15-minute workouts.

Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" is one of my favorite songs. "If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do is to save every day 'til eternity passes away...If I could make days last forever...I'd save every day like a treasure." Croce died at 30.

Tomorrow is promised to no one. Make hay while the sun shines. Use the extra daylight to do things that make you happy, such as playing catch with your kids, puttering around the garden or golf course, walking your dog or reading on a park bench.

I could go on, but I'm really busy. I've just run out of time...and space.

Michael Cronk is editor of the Sun. He can be reached at 408.200-1055 or www.mcronk@community-newspapers.com.