Time Foolery

We’ve turned the clocks forward (at least most American states have). It’s a poor man’s time travel, I suppose. Suddenly, we’re in the future—an hour ahead. Many contend we gain something with the trick, although regardless of what our clocks say, we have exactly as much daytime as we did the day before. We’ve only rearranged the time we say it is. My animals are never fooled.

These past couple of years, we’ve witnessed people attempting to change reality by what they say it is. Some called fraud. Some championed the distorted reality. Some turned away and pretended nothing had changed. Nothing really had. Right was still right. Wrong was still wrong. The only thing that changed was how we reacted. But what does it do to a body when you try to fool it?

When the time changed, I was flying east so my body had to adjust to a three-hour time difference all at once—as though I were traveling much farther. Scientists have proven that “springing forward” has negative effects on health, safety, and productivity. Those who frequently skip across time zones have all sorts of remedies they employ to force their bodies to switch rhythms. We can make ourselves eat what is for us deception, but we can’t protect ourselves from the consequences. Cognitive dissonance (when you try to accept conflicting realities) makes people sick—physically and emotionally.

One friend was repeatedly told his family was fine and happy, although even as a small child he could watch the adults drinking too much and fighting. He stopped believing his own perceptions. Surely the adults were right. It took him a lifetime to realize he was the one who was right all along. When our authorities lie to us, we have a painful choice:  do we allow ourselves to believe our authorities are wrong? Or do we decide we must not really understand? How many adults who have trouble acting on what they KNOW to be true had similar experiences? We end up believing somebody else knows better. “I’m not enough.”

Unfortunately, education doesn’t necessarily help. A good education teaches us to examine our world critically, asking questions and seeking out reliable answers. It teaches independent thought and self-confidence. A rote education teaches that somebody else always knows better, and if our answers don’t match the ones on the test, the test is never wrong. (By the way, I’ve never seen a math textbook that was entirely error-free and that’s true of most other textbooks, as well.)

My dad always ate according to the clock. Dinner should be eaten at 5:30 and lunch at noon, regardless of snacks or activities in between. People used to be raised like that. My dad died depending on his doctors to take care of him, when their knowledge was incomplete and biased toward products pushed by the pharma reps. I learned from his mistake.

There’s a danger in not listening to your instincts, not questioning, and being an obedient follower of whoever blusters best. You’re disrespecting yourself, your best self. Our clocks don’t change the sunlight; planetary movement does. What you gain on one end of the day by playing with the numbers, you lose on the other. You know the difference between right and wrong. Believe it.