Light. What light?
Ah, yes. Here we are again. At that confusing time of year once more. You know what I mean. These days come twice a year, and while this is the lesser of the two evils, it is, nonetheless, disconcerting. You know. Yeah. Daylight Saving Time Fiasco. I remember when the world turned upside down, and this abomination was introduced to humanity. What? You think you like it? What kind of God-forsaken planet were you born on?
Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember the olden days when day was day and night was night. I mean, REAL night! Oh, don’t give me that old, “The poor schoolchildren don’t need to be wandering blindly in the darkness trying to get to school business. Or that baloney about how it’s better to have light at the end of the day, rather than early in the morning.” Hogwash. That’s what I say. Did you know that there are some states that didn’t adopt Daylight Saving Time? HMMMM?
I remember when it first came to be in our part of the country. I was a teenager working, waiting tables, at the nearby state park. Funny thing about how nobody let the National and State parks in on this little secret. All the brochures and timetables didn’t even know it was happening. So while everyone was so busy talking about how the government was to arrange to have an hour of sunlight more in the morning, those who still had to work on REAL time were stumbling into work in the dark.
Oh, and what about states like Arizona, Hawaii, and, until 2005, Indiana, who blithely said,“We don’t care what the rest of the country is doing, we’re sticking to GOD’S TIME. Our farmers’ cows don’t know how to tell time, anyway. This is just government interference with the NATURAL order of things. Next thing you know, they’ll put speed limits on all the roads!
As a matter of fact, when we moved to Arizona a few years later, one of the saintly ladies of the church stood up and announced that she was GLAD, mind you, GLAD that Arizona didn’t bow the knee to Daylight Saving Time, that unholy, godless messing around with the natural order of things! She said, “As hot as summers are, one more hour of daylight would cause her tomatoes to burn up on the vines!!” (Well, you must admit that it gets pretty hot in Arizona!)
And now, here we are, some 50 years later, still bowing to unholy daylight saving time!
Oh, come on, you know what I mean. Some states have even made preparations to oust that”God forsaken” law, except that they do rather enjoy the extra hour of sleep in the evening when they can climb down off that tractor and tuck into a nice little supper, and then tuck into a bed, keeping the shades pulled against all that light in the west!
OK, OK, I know what you are thinking! “That fall on her head was more serious than she thought.” Well, let me tell you, my friend, if God had meant for us to be cock-eyed and sluggish of a morning, He could very well have changed the time to be as He wanted it in the first place! Or He certainly had the power and knowhow to change it Himself. Let me ask you this: Who knows more than God? Hmmmmm?
Isatu (Mariatu) Boyce
Actually, after all the ranting and raving above, I have a confession to make. Our daughter, Isatu Boyce, is speaking at our church on November 2nd. Do you have any idea how that time change could have gone if we’d had to leap forward and not back? Well, don’t get me started on that……
We are proud of Isatu (also known as Mariatu) for having the foresight and fortitude to write the book about the rebellion and bloodshed there in Sierra Leone back 25 years ago. She’s a real hero, raising four kids, and making time to run them to track, and gymnastics, and dance, and soccer, let alone getting them to school at ungodly hours.
If you are not familiar with the book, you can order it on her website, isatuboyce.com, or Amazon. What a stellar piece of writing: Overcoming the Bitterness of War.
I hope you will find love and compassion in your heart, just as God lovingly gave us 24 hours, more or less, in our days. He always finds time to hold a beloved child in His arms and whisper to her, as he did in those dark, dark days of war, “Everything’s going to be all right. Rest in Me, dear child. I have plans you know not of.”
I was recently looking through some books that had been given to me and found a card with this prayer on it. It’s the Prayer of Abandonment from Charles de Foucauld.
“Father, I abandon myself into your hands,
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all,
I accept all.Let only your will be done in me and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this,
O Lord. Into your hands, I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart;
For I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself:
To surrender myself into your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence.
For you are my Father.’”
Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Love,
