40 ~ Lagging
Well, here we are today (at least in Canada & the US): the annual ritual that marks the start of the institutionalized oppression of morning people, the switch to Daylight Saving Time.
Being a morning person, I’m no fan of DST (can you tell…?) Even its name is a con (sort of like snow and ice covered Greenland, which was named Greenland in an attempt to attract settlers) – no daylight , of course, is ‘saved’, it’s just rearranged.
It’s fairly well documented that the twice-yearly shift is not good for the general health and well-being of the parishioners. Sort of like giving us all, every spring and fall, small doses of jet lag. Consequently, there’s been talk of getting rid of the shifts, and putting us permanently on DST. Saying goodbye to the shifts may have merit, but I think a move toward permanent DST would be a solution in the wrong direction (and I might move to Greenland if that happens).
Consider one very important reason. Research shows that the circadian rhythm of adolescents and teens is different from adults, and if school were scheduled to best match and maximize young people’s learning potential and emotional well-being (especially high schoolers), instead of being scheduled around the work schedule of parents, school would start at about 11 am (and go to about 6 pm). Yet annual DST forces teens to get up even an extra hour earlier by the sun. I wonder what cumulative impact DST has for millions of young people around the world. I don’t know (no one does) but I’m guessing it’s not good. Come November, when DST is still in gear, kids on my road have to wait in the ‘morning’ in the pitch dark and cold for the school bus. Nuts, imho.
And even for fans of DST, they now get it for eight months of the year (mid March to mid November), leaving we morning people with the crumbs of just four months on a natural schedule (sun at its highest at noon) and more light in the morning. Oh, the never-ending struggle for fairness and equity...
Anyway, I’ll pivot now from whining about DST to expressing much gratitude, for the very, very generous responses I’ve received to the invitation in my last post to help support this ad-free blog financially. I am both touched and inspired. Thank you!
And your responses have made this blog feel even more like a community – that it’s something we’re doing, and not just me, tossing an occasional pebble into the well. I write today with gratitude, dear readers.
I am happy to report that trees apparently don’t know we’ve switched to Daylight Saving Time, and the maples haven’t missed a beat today on sap flow. The season is still on, and syrup still on the boil (I just heard from one reader near Mazomanie, Loren, that he and his wife used to make up to 30-50 quarts of maple syrup each spring! Wow, I’m bush league, as it were, compared to that.)
What I’m reading and can recommend:
Hidden Thunder: Rock Art of the Upper Midwest (2016), by Geri Schrab and Robert “Ernie” Boszhardt. This is an absolutely beautiful, evocative exploration of Native American rock carvings and paintings of the Driftless Area, much of which is thousands of years old. Schrab is an artist, who for decades has interpreted the region’s rock art in watercolor paintings. Boszhardt is an archeologist and a leading authority on Wisconsin’s rock art. Both are also gifted writers. In addition, the volume is woven with essays by Native Americans, most of them from Wisconsin, on the significance of rock art to themselves and their communities. The work, which won a Midwest Book Award, is a unique and inspirational blend of art, science and literary memoir, and both immigrant and indigenous voices. An eye-opener, in many ways.
A heads-up that, in fact, at 5 pm CDST today, Boszhardt will give an online talk on the archeology of the Driftless - information on his presentation here: https://mining.jamison.museum/programs/