Why do we keep messing with time?

Even time belongs to God the Father.  Yes, over the centuries we have identified what a day, a week, a month, even a year should look like.  Every four years we add a day.  Every now and then, they add a second on the atomic clock.  We keep messing with time.  Perhaps the biggest outrage with time is this farce called daylight savings time.  All of us, except Arizonans and a few other folks in the US of A, sprung forward Sunday morning so we can have more daylight at night.  Heaven forbid that we just stole that hour from the morning.  Now we are assured of that lost hour of sleep, outrageous darkness for a few months while little children wait, at risk, at bus stops, families who come inside later, eat much later, go to bed much later and wake up grouchy, late and just generally out of sorts.  I don't get it; never have and never will.

We now have real hard empirical data that shows the long thought benefits of DST don't really exist.  This change in time does nothing to save money, and now has been proven as a health risk to a large percentage of the population.  Craziness.

Still, I am, by far,  in the minority in my opinion.  It seems a casual check with family, friends and others I mix and mingle with declare a big thumbs up for this crazy time realignment.  People say its a good thing to stay outside longer, to play longer, to do yard work later, to get home from work with an hour or, should I say, hours before the sun goes down.

I watched with some fascination the parade of parishioners at Church Sunday rushing in late, or arriving casually only to realize they were missing Mass.  I watched the quiet witness of an elderly couple that just flat out missed Mass so they sat side by side in Church, until it was time to go, apparently in prayer and obviously disappointed.

Time is "big time" on the minds of Catholics and people of goodwill these days because it's been a hurry up and wait stance as we wonder when and who the new Pope will be!  Time is something we must be reminded is yet another gift from God.  Even time should be something we bless, or consecrate, throughout the days.  Hence, the Church prays the Liturgy of the Hours.  Of course with the Catholic Church truly being "catholic, meaning universal"every hour of every day there is someone praying the Mass, or the Liturgy of the Hours.  In every hour of every day, in the finest of Catholic tradition, the name of the Lord is praised and worshipped by Catholics.  Many of these same Catholics go along with this time change thing; I wish the Church would come out against DST.  Of course, this won't happen and this really is not a serious suggestion:)

So time marches on; changed for another almost 8 months, when I get my hour of sleep back, and remarkably, it's dark at night and light by day.  Novel idea!