When I was in first grade, my family became friends with a quaint family that lived away off the beaten track. Their home was a large log cabin with a covered walkway from the house to the kitchen. I learned that they put the kitchen a distance from the house—in case the kitchen caught fire it was more likely the house could be saved. They had no electricity and grew all the food they needed on their farm. To me one of the strangest quirks was how they would tell time; they called it “sun time.”.” There was no clock in their house. Sun time, also known as solar time or apparent time, is a way to measure time based on the position of the sun in the sky—-the way a sundial tells time.
Time Zones became necessary over 200 years ago, because railroads needed precise schedules. Poo-bahs of time divided the earth roughly into twenty-four time zones. GMT or Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time. UTC. marked the international starting point (my term). In an economic move during WW I, The Standard Time Act of 1918 established DST as law in the U.S. The law also established the five time zones that are still in use today. The United States switched back to Standard time in 1974; it was short lived, for in 1987 we were back to DST.
In the United States, Arizona and Hawaii, do not observe DST and never change their clocks. In 2021 the State of Georgia Legislature passed a law establishing a permanent Daylight Saving Time—-However, the law cannot go into effect unless and until Congress makes it law. I could be quite happy if DST became permanent—in many ways life could be made more convenient and in my humble opinion, safer.
Meanwhile, we live in a bifocal state of time. Therefore unless your electronics do it for you—this weekend you will need to move your clock back one hour at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 3—The compensation is that you get one extra hour of sleep (that hour you lost last March). I am quite happy for my electronics to make that late-night change for me; but for my other time-pieces, I start around noon on Saturday setting to EST—in anticiipation of that extra upcoming hour.
This discussion is a focus on -chronous —a measure of time. There is yet another kind of time; Kairos–as in the time has come, or the fruition of time. The Gospel of Luke describes Kairos as the birth of the Christ child—or it may be said, in God’s own time. Time does not change—only our perception or use of time. Kairos is an important way Christians perceive and use time. Another way of thinking of Kairos is, “in the fullness of time.” Kairos provides a wonderful sense of readiness, being patient and ready—in God’s own time.
©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2024
Good reading material.