Times a Changin'

I woke up this morning confused, but this time it was justified. My kitchen appliances said 7:30 (NYC-standard time); my cable box, 8:30 (automatically changed to NYC-daylight savings time, being a “smart” little bugger); my watch, 6:30 (having been in Chicago last week); my PDA, 1:30 (Budapest-standard time); and my cell phone, 2:30 (Budapest-daylight savings time). Daylight savings time went into effect this morning in most of the States (and went into effect in most of Europe last weekend). I looked out my bedroom window for guidance. The sun was already high in the sky over the Hudson River, but all I could tell was that it was probably sometime before noon (I just arrived in New Jersey, and wasn’t sure when the Sun was rising here these days). And I couldn’t tell if the dog walkers were on their first or second walks of the day.

I find it disconcerting that I felt so disoriented by not knowing the actual local time. I didn’t know how long I’ve been asleep, I didn’t know if I would be on time for kickboxing training, and most importantly: I couldn’t properly set my mental countdown to the airing of the new episode of The Sopranos... this was really a stressful morning for me.



I walked by the mysterious “clock” (in the photo above) overlooking Union Square today. Nobody really knows what the constantly changing numbers mean (so I’m not sure why it’s commonly referred to as a “clock”). One theory was that it was a countdown to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in NYC, but they were wrong (good thing too, as we didn’t win the bid). Some say that it somehow, at the same time, is a countdown to—and counting from—midnight. Whatever it actually tells us, almost everyone that sees it seriously ponders its meaning and how it relates to them.

It’s funny how influential the concept of time has become upon our lives, especially in the urban areas (is it because of all the clock towers?). In NYC, you could practically set your watch to someone coming into Starbucks for their morning half-decaf-grande-con-latte. Change is not a welcome concept to the regulars.



Sitting in Washington Square this afternoon, enjoying my $4.50 mocha and $3.25 brownie (that’s my food budget for 2+ days in Budapest) from Dean & Deluca, I started thinking more about change. It seems that most of our free time is spent preparing for changes in our lives. It could be planning a wedding, finding a new apartment, or applying to school. When you think about it, it’s the anticipation of change that seems to take over our lives... Did we prepare enough? Will the change be successful and fulfill our dreams? Will the Olympics come to NYC? And all of these things just seem to add stress to our lives. The actual event is simply a milestone that quickly comes and goes. When the change takes hold, it becomes a “stepping stone” for us; when it doesn’t, it becomes a “memory.” But it’s the “memories” that seem to be more often cherished and celebrated. I think I’m giving birth to a new motto: Spend less time on the prep work and reduce stress... you’ll have more memories. OK, maybe I’ll think about that some more.

Being on the border between two time zones, parts of Indiana observes Eastern time, while the rest observes Central time. To complicate matters, a different division of the state does not observe the change to daylight savings time at all. The Northwest corner of Indiana (the suburbs of Chicago) follows Eastern (NYC) time during the Fall and Winter, and Central (Chicago) time during the Spring and Summer. I’ve worked with several people from this area, and they all seem well-balanced and grounded. I think not having to deal with the time issues that I had this morning might have had an impact. To reduce some of the unnecessary stress, I propose that we “promote” this concept of daylight savings time to a memory. Let’s negotiate and permanently adjust the time by 30 minutes, half-way in-between standard and daylight savings times.