Fantastic, Plastic Time

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” Henry Van Dyke quotes (American short-story Writer, Poet and Essayist, 1852-1933)

These famous words might lead one to think that man lives at the mercy of time...the constantly flowing medium through which we live our mortal lives...but, who says?!?!?

An impertinent question, perhaps, but there seems to be more and more anecdotal evidence that our notions of time can be and are, at times, intentionally manipulated. No one can actually break out of mortal time, of course, until one's eternal spirit departs the "jar of clay." But how we measure time, well, that can be a different matter.

A minor headline on foxnews.com today explains how Russian President Medvedev has decided to do away with two of Russia's time zones:

MOSCOW – Russia's president thought the country had too much time on its hands, so on Sunday he eliminated two of its 11 time zones.

The changes mean that Chukotka — Russia's eastern extreme, just across the Bering Strait from Alaska — is now nine hours ahead of Russia's westernmost area, the Kaliningrad exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. Formerly, there was 10 hours' difference.

As well as eliminating the time zone that previously covered the Chukotka and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky regions in the Pacific Far East, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered that Samara and Udmurtia, two regions in central Russia, should be on the same time as Moscow.

The changes went into effect before dawn Sunday when most of Russia switched to daylight savings time. People in the eliminated time zones didn't move their clocks an hour ahead.

As Craig Ferguson would say, as he shakes his fist at the all-seeing camera, "Take that!, you clock-setting faceless bureaucrats!!" (or something of that ilk).

Just think, how the "all-powerful" parameters we use for telling time dictate when we do everything, everyday. And they turn out to be 'paper tigers', afterall...who knew?! Just decide not to reset your clock!

I think I recall, quite a few years ago, that Russia had somehow not "sprung ahead" on daylight savings time for more than a year...no explanation as to whether it was intentional or not...it just happened and the daily schedules of the shivering masses were dictated by Them.

Even here, in the storied Forest City, my husband told me of a local church who decided that it was a bit of a hardship on churchgoers to lose that hour of sleep when daylight savings time is instituted each Spring; so this year, en masse, they just decided that they wouldn't adjust their clocks ahead one hour until AFTER that morning's services. Imagine the audacity! The pluck! The gratitude of the flock that was given another week to adjust their inner clocks to the seasonal change!

If only other annoying realities of life proved to be so malleable...it clearly takes Major League determination and courageous vision...I think I'll put Miss Cee on this right away....